
















^ ^^. 








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Tiie barbarism of Slayery. 



ilR. MADISON THOUGHT IT WRONG TO ADMIT IN THE CONSTITUTION THE IDEA 

OF PKOPIIRTY IN ^^lE'S.—De'jatss in the Federal Convention, 2'^th Aui/imt, 1187. 



SPEECH 



OF 



HON. CHAELES SUMNEE 



ON THE 



Bill for the Admission of Kansas as a Free State. 



In the United States Senate, June 4, 1860. 



..i - 0C7.'^.. - 



% 



JUu. 



^> 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 

PUBLISHED BY THADDEUS HYATT. 
1860. 



, THE CLERGY EDITION OF 40,000. 



Forty Thousand Copies of Charles Sumner's Great Speech. — 
The undersigned has determined to supply the Clergy of the coun- 
try, each man of them, with a copy of this, the great speech of the 
century. One thousand dollars is required for this purpose. Such 
friends of Freedom as desire to share with me the pleasure of this 
undertaking, may enclose their subscriptions to my friend, the Hon. 
Samuel E. Sewall, No. 46 Washington street, Boston. 

THADDEUS HYATT. 

Washington Jail, June 13, 18 GO. 



arbari§in of Slavery. 



. MR. MADISON THOUGHT IT WRONG TO ADMIT IN TUE CONSTITUTION THE IDEA 
'^.- OF PROPERTY IN UEH.— Debates in the Federal Conveniion, 25th August, 1181. 

? „ 



SPEECH 



OF 






HON. CHAELES 



Kfh^'-^:777r..,^r\^\' 




Bill for the Admission of Kansas as a Free State. 



ON THE 



In the United States Senate, June 4» 1860. 



Mr. Pkesiuent: Undertaking now, after a 
silence of more than four years, to address 
the Senate on this important subject, I should 
suppress the emotions natural to such an 
occasion, if I did not declare on the thresh- 
old my gratitude to that Supreme Being, 
through whose benign care I am enabled, after 
much suffering and many changes, once again 
to resume my duties here, and to speak for 
the cause which is so near my heart. To the 
honored Commonwealth wh^^se representative 
I am, and also to my immediate associates in 
this body, with whom I enjoy the fellowship 
which is found in thinkiiui alike toncerning the 
llcpuhlic, I owe thanks which I seize this mo- 
ment to express for the indulgence shown me 
throughout the protracted seclusion enjoined 
by medical skill ; and I trust that it will not 
be thought unbecoming in me to put on rec- 
ord here, as an apology for leaving my seat so 
long vacant, without making way, by resigna- 
tion, for a successor, that I acted under the 
illusion of an invalid, whose hopes for restora- 
tion tohis natural health constantly triumphed 
ov(?r his disappointments. 

When last I entered into this debate, it became 
my duty to expose the Crime against Kansas, and 
to insist upon the immediate admission of that 
Territory as a State of this Union, with a Con- 
stitution forbidding Slavery. Time has passed ; 
but the question remains. Resuming the dis- 
cussion precisely where I left it, I am happy to 
avow that rule of moderation, which, it is said, 
may venture even to fix the boundaries of wis- 
dom itself. I have no personal gtiels to utter ; 
ouly a barbarous egotism could intrude these 



into this chamber. I have no personal wrongs 
to avenge ; only a barbarous nature could at- 
tempt to wield that vengeance which belongs 
to the Lord. The years that have intervened 
and the tombs that have been opened since 
I spoke have their voices too, which I cannot 
fail to hear. Besides, what am I — what is any 
man among the living or among the dead, 
compared with the Question before us ? It is 
this alone which I shall discuss, and I open the 
argument with that easy victory which is found 
I in charity, 

I The Crime against Kansas stands forth in 
1 painful light. h!earch history, and you cannot 
j find its parallel. The slave-trade is bad; but 
i even this enormity is petty, compared with that 
I elaborate contrivance by which, in a Christian 
i age and within the limits of a Republic, all 
forms of constitutional liberty were perverted ; 
by which all the rights of human nature were vi- 
olated, and the whole country was held trembling 
on the edge of civil war ; while all this large 
exuberance of wickedness, detestal)le in itself, 
becomes tenfold more detestable when its ori- 
gin is traced to the madness for Slavery. The 
fatal partition between Freedom and Slavery, 
known as the Missouri Compromise; the sub- 
sequent overthrow of this partition, and thfj 
seizure of all by Slavery ; the violation o f 
plighted faith ; the conspiracy to force Slavery 
at all hazards into Kansas; the successive in- 
vasions by which all security there was "de- 
stroyed, and the electoral franchise itself T/as 
trodden down ; the sacrilegious seizure of the 
very polls, and, through pretended forma of 
law, the imposition of a foreign legislature upoa. 



2 



liis Territory; the acts of this legislature, 
lortifying the Usurpation, and, among other 
things, establishing test-oaths, calculated to" 
disfranchise actual settlers, friendly to Free- 
dom, and securing the priviteges of the citizen 
to actual strangers friendly to Slavery; the whole 
crowned by a statute — "the be-all and the end- 
all" of the whole Usurpation — through which 
Slavery was not only recognised on this beau- 
tiful soil, but made to bristle with a Code of 
Death such as the world has rarely seen ; all 
these I have fully exposed on a former occa- 
sion. And yet the most important part of the 
argument was at that time left untouched ; I 
mean that which is found in the Character of 
Slavery. This natural sequel, with the permis- 
eion of the Senate, I propose now to supply. 

Motive is to Crime as soul to body ; and it is 
only when we comprehend the motive that we 
can truly comprehend the Crime. Here, the 
motive is found in Slavery and the rage for its 
extension. Therefore, by logical necessity, must 
Slavery be discussed; not indirectly, timidly, 
and sparingly, but directly, openly, and thor- 
onghly. It must be exhibited as it is ; alike 
in its influence and in its animating character, 
80 that not only its outside but its inside may 
be seen. 

This is no time for soft words or excuses. 
All such are out of place. They may turn 
away wrath ; but what is the wrath of man ? 
This is no time to abandon any advantage in the 
argument. Senators sometimes announce that 
they resist Slavery on political grounds only, 
and remind us that they say nothing of the 
moral question. This is wrong. Slavery must 
be resisted not only on political grounds ; but 
on all other grounds, whether social, economi- 

V cal, or moral. Ours is no holiday contest; 

^ nor \a it any strife of rival factions; of White 
and Red Roses; of theatric Neri and Bianchi ; 
but it is a solemn battle between Right and 
V. Wrong; between Good and Evil. Such a bat- 
tle cannot be fought with excuses or with rose- 
wat€r. There is austere work to be done, and 
Fi'^edora cannot consent to fling away any of 
hcM- weapons. 

If I were disposed to shrink from this discus- 
sion, the boundless assumptions now made by 
Senators on the other side would not allow 
me. The whole character of Slavery as a 
pretended form of civilization is put directly 
in issue, with a pertinacity and a hardihood 
which banish all reserve on this side. In these 
sissumptions. Senators from South Carolina 
naturally take the lead. Following Mr. Cal- 
houn, who pronounced " Slavery the most safe 
and stable basis for free institutions in the 
world," and Mr. McDuffie, who did not shrink 
from calling it " the corner-stone of the repub- 
lican edifice," the Senator from South CaroUua 
[Mr. Hammond] insists that " its forn-is of so- 
ciety are the best in the world ; " and his col- 
league [Mr. Chesnut] takes up the strain. 
One Senator from Mississippi [Mr. Davis] 



adds, that Slavery " is but a form of civil gov- 
ernment for those who are not fit to govern 
themselves;" and his colleague [Mr. Brown] 
openly vaunts that it " is a great moral, social, 
and political blessing — a blessing to the slave 
and a blessing to the master." One Senator 
from Virginia, [Mr. Huntkr.] in a studied vin- 
dication of what he is pleased to call " the so- 
cial system of the slaveholdiug States," exalts 
Slavery as "the normal condition of human 
society ; " " beneficial to the non-slave-owner 
as it is to the slave-owner" — " best for the hap- 
piness of both races ;" and, in enthusiastic ad- 
vocacy, declares, " that the very keystone of 
the mighty arch, which by its concentrated 
strength is able to sustain our social super- 
structure, consists in the black marble block of 
African slavery. Knock that out," he says, 
"and the mighty fabric, with all that it up- 
holds, topples and tumbles to its fall." These 
were his very words, uttered in debate here. 
And his colleague, [Mr. Mason,] who has never 
hesitated where slavery was in question, has 
proclaimed that it is " ennobliruj to both master 
and slave" — a v/ord which, so far as the slave 
was concerned, he changed, on a subsequent 
day, to "elevating," assuming still that it is 
"ennobling" to the master — which is simply a 
new version of an old assumption, by Mr. Mc- 
DufSe, of South Carolina, that " Slavery super- 
sedes the necessity of an order of nobility." 

Thus, by various voices, is the claim made 
for Slavery, which is put forward defiantly 
as a form of civilization — as if its existence 
were not plainly inctinsistent with the first 
principles of anything that can be called 
Civilization — except by that figure of speech 
in classical literature, where a thing takes 
its name from something which it has not, 
as the dreadful Fates were called merci- 
ful because they were without mercy. And 
pardon the allusion, if I add, that, listening to 
these sounding words for Slavery, I am re- 
minded of the kindred extravagance related 
by that remarkable traveller in China, the late 
Abb6 Hue, of a gloomy hole in which he was 
lodged, pestered by mosquitoes and exhaling 
.noisome vapors, where light and air entered 
only by a single narrow aperture, but styled by 
Chinese pride the Hotel of the Beatitudes. 

It is natural that Senators thus insensible to 
the true character of Slavery, should evince an 
equal insensibility to the true character of the 
Constitution. This is shown in the claim now 
made, and pressed with unprecedented energy, 
degrading the work of our fathers, that by 
virtue of the Constitution, the pretended prop- 
erty in mau is placed beyond the reach of 
Congressional prohibition even within Congres- 
sional jurisdiction, so that the Slave-master 
may at all times enter the broad outlying Ter- 
ritories of the Union with the victims of his op- 
pression, and there continue to hold them by 
lash and chain. 

Such are the two assutnptioas, the Jirst an 



assnmption of fact, and the si^cond an assump- 
tion of constitutional law, which are now made 
withont apolo.try or liesitation. I meet them 
both. To the (irst I oppose the essential Bar- 
barism of Slavery, in all its inlluences, whether 
high or low, as Satan is Satan still, whether 
towering in the sky or squatting in. the toad. 
To the second I oppose the unanswerable, irre- 
sistible truth, that the Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States nowhere recognises property in man. 
These two assumptions naturally go together. 
They are " twins " suckled by the same wolf. 
They are the "couple" in the present slave 
hunt. And the latter cannot be auswered with- 
out exposing the former. It is only when Sla- 
very is exhibited in its truly hateful character, 
that we can fully appreciate the absurdity of 
the assumption, which, in defiance of the ex- 
press letter of the Constitution, and without a 
single sentence, phrase, or word, upholding 
human bondage, yet foists into this blameless 
text the barbarous idea that man can hold 
property in man. 

On former occasions, I have discussed Sla- 
very only incidentally ; as, in unfolding the 
principle that Slavery is Sectional and Freedom 
National ; in exposing the unconstitutionality 
of the Fugitive Slave Bill; in vindicating the 
Prohibition of Slavery in the Missouri Territo- 
ry; in exhibiting the imbecility throughout the 
Revolution of the Slave States, and especially 
of South Carolina; and lastly, in unmasking 
the Crime against Kansas. On all these occa- 
sions, where I have spoken at length, I have 
said too little of the character of Slavery, partly 
because other topics were presented, and partly 
from a disinclination which I have always felt 
to press the arguuient against those whom I 
knew to have all the sensitiveness of a sick 
man. But, God be praised, this time has 
passed, and the debate is now lifted from de- 
tails to principles. Grander debate has not 
occurred in our history ; rarely in any history ; 
nor can this debate close or subside except 
wiih the triumph of Freedom. 

First AssuMrnoN-. — Of course I begin with 
the assumption of fact. 

It was the often-quoted remark of John 
Wesley, who knew well how to use words, as 
also how to touch hearts, that Slavery was "the 
8um of all villainies." The phrase is pungent ; 
but it would be rash in any of us to criticize 
the testimony of that illustrious founder of 
Methodism, whose ample experience of Slavery 
in Georgia and the Carolinas seems to have 
been all condensed in this sententious j udgment. 
Language is feeble to express all the enormity 
of this institution, which is now vaunted as in 
itself a form of civilization, "ennobling" at 
least to the master, if not to the slave. Look 
at it in whatever light you will, and it is always 
the scab, the canker, the " bare-bones," and 
the shame of the country; wrong, not merely 
in the abstract, as is often adnjitted by its apol- - 



ogists, but wrong in the concrete also, and pos- 
sessing no single element of right. Look at it ia 
the light of principles, and it is nothing less thaa 
a huge insurrection against the eternal law 
of God, involving in its pretensions the denial 
of all human rights, and also the denial of that 
Divine Law in which God himself is manifest, 
thus being practically the grossest lie and tho 
grossest Atheism. Founded in violence, sus- 
tained only by violence, such a wrong must by 
a sure law of compensation blast the master 
as well as the slave ; blast the lands on which 
they live ; blast the community of which they 
are a part; blast the Government which docs 
nottbrbid the outrage ; and the longer it exiata 
and the more completely it prevails, must itc 
blasting inQuences penetrate the whole sociaT 
system. Barbarous in origin ; barbarous id 
its law ; barbarous in all its pretensions ; bap 
barous in the instruments it employs ; bar- 
barous in consequences ; barbarous in spirit"; 
barbarous wherever it shows itself. Slavery 
must breed Barbarians, while it develops every- 
where, alike in the individual and in the so- 
ciety to which he belongs, the essential ele- 
ments of Barbarism. In this character it ia 
now conspicuous before the world. 

In undertaking now to expose the Barbar- 
ism OF Slavery, the whole broad field is opea 
before me. There is nothing in its character, 
its manifold wrong, its wretched results, and 
especially in its influence on the class who 
claim to be " ennobled " by it, that will not fall 
naturally under consideration. 

I know well the difliculty of this discussion 
involved in the humiliating Truth with which 
I begin. Senators on former occasions, re- 
vealing their sensibility, have even protested 
against any comparison between what were 
called the "two civilizations," meaning the two 
social systems produced respectively by Free- 
dom and by Slavery. The sensibility and the 
protest are not unnatural, though mistaken. 
" Two civilizations 1 " Sir, in this nineteenth 
century of Christian light, there can be but one 
Civilization, and this is where Freedom prevails. 
Between Slavery and Civilization there is au 
essential incompatibility. If you are for the 
one, you cannot be for the other ; and just ia 
proportion to the embrace of Slavery is the di- 
vorce from Civilization. That Slave-masters 
should be disturbed when this is exposed, might 
be expected. But the assumptions now so 
boastfully made, while theymay not prevent 
the sensibility, yet surely exclude all ground of 
protest when these assumptions are exposed. 

Nor is this the only difliculty. Slavery ia 
a bloody Touch-me-not, and everywhere ia 
sight now blooms the bloody flower. It is oa 
the way side as we approach the national 
capital ; it is on the marble steps which we 
mount; it flaunts on this floor. I stand now 
in the house of its friends. About me while I 
speak are its most sensitive guardians, who 
have shown in the past how piuch thej ar« 



rjady either to do or not to do where Slavery 
is in question. Menaces to deter me have not 
been spared. But I should ill deserve this 
high post oi' duty here, with which I hs,vo been 
honored by a generons and enlightened people, 
if I could hesitate. Idolatry has been often ex- 
posed in the presence of idolaters, and hypocri- 
sy has been chastised in the presence of Scribes 
and Pharisees. Such examples may give en- 
couragement to a Senator who undertakes in 
this presence to expose Slavery ; nor can any lan- 
guage, directly responsive to the assumptions 
now made for this Barbarism, be open to ques- 
tion. Slavery can only be painted in the 
sternest colors ; but I cannot forget that na- 
ture's sternest painter has been called the best. 

The Barbarism of Slavery appears ; first 
in the character of Slaver//, and secondly in 
the character of Slave-masters. Under the iirst 
head we shall naturally consider (1) the Law 
•of Slavery and its Origin, and (2) the practical 
results of Slavery as shown in a comparison be- 
tween the Free States and the Slave States. 
Under the second head we shall naturally con- 
sider (1) Slave-masters as shown in the Law of 
Slavery; (2) Slave-masters in their relations 
with slaves, here f lancing at their three brutal 
instruments ; and (3) Slave-masters in their re- 
lations with each other, with society, and with 
Government ; and (4) Slave- miistera in their 
unconsciousness. 

The way will then be prepared for the con- 
sideration of the assumption of constitutional 
law. 

L In presenting the Character of Slave- 
ry, there is little for me to do, except to allow 
Slavery to paint itself. W hen this is done, the 
picture will need no explanatory words. 

(1.) I begin with the Law of Slg,very and its 
Origin, and here this Barbarism paints itself in 
itsown chosen definition. It is simply this: Man, 
created in the image of God, is divested of bis 
human character, and declared to be a " chat- 
f. 1 " — that is, a beast, a thing or article of prop- 
i^ny. That this statement may not seem to be 
^•)ut forward without precise authority, I quote 
t>W statutes of three different States, beginning 
w'tii South CafioJjna, whase voice for Slavery 
riK'ays has an unerr^iig distinctiveness. Here 
as tV\e definition suppiied by this State : 

" Slav-es shall be deeisiedjiwlJ, taken, reputed, and ad- 

•jm£gei( in law,if) be ekaUels personal in the hands of their 

owiiers and posses^fs and their executors, administra- 

. tort-, and as.=:<in^, to all inienis, K^jsii^truciions, and pur- 

I ' poses whatsoever. '-,^2 prgv. Dig., l^. 

I .. Atjd here is the definitioa supplied by the 
j jGiyil Code of Loiiisijana s 

i ^A slawe is one who is in the power of a master to 
[ twhoBi l\e/'jplonjis. Ths master may sejl him, dispose ol 
J . ttispe*stw','his industry, and his labor. He can do uoth- 
' -inR, possess noiliiiig. npr atquire anythins;, bulwliatniust 
belong l;0' his masitr-"— Civii Code, art. US. 

■ In similar spirit, the law of Maryland thus 
findirfictly defines a slave m an article ; 



"In case the personal property of a ward shall consist 
ofspecific articles, such as slaves, worhini; beasts, animals 
of any Itind, the court, if it deem it advantajieous for the 
ward, may at any lirae pass aa order for the sale there- 
of.'— SjafM^es of Maryland. 

Not to occupy time unnecessarily, I present 
a summary of the pretended law defining Sla- 
very in all the Slave States, as made by a care- 
ful writer, Judge Stroud, in a work of juridical 
as well as philanthropic merit : 

"The cardinal principle of Slavery— that the slave is • 
potio I, cranked among S'ntient bein;.;s, but among tilings— 
is an article of property- a chaitef pt^rsonal— o )'ai"s as 
undoubted law iu all of these [Slave] SVAltis."— Stroud's 
Law of Slavery, p 22. 

Out of this definition, as from a solitary germ, 
which in its pettiness might be crushed by the 
hand, towers our Upas Tree and all its gi- 
ganttc poison. Study it, and you will compre- 
hend the whole monstrous growth. 

Sir, look at its plain import, and see the rela- ■ 
tion which it establishes. The slave is held sim- ^ 
ply /or ike use of his master, to whose behests, 
his life, liberty, and happiness, are devoted, and 
by whom he may be bartered, leased, mortgaged, 
bequeathed, invoiced, shipped as cargo, stored 
as goods, sold on execution, knocked off at 
public auction, and even staked ai the gaiTiing 
table on the hazard of a card or a die ;' all ac- 
cording to law. Nor is there anything, within 
the limit of life, inflicted on a beast which may 
not be inflicted on the slave. He may be 
marked like a hog, branded like a mule, yoked 
like an ox, hobbled like a horse, driven \'\ke an 
ass, sheared like a sheep, maimed like a cur, and 
constantly beaten like a brute; all according 
to law. And should life itself be talzeu, what 
is the remedy? The Law of Slavery, imitating 
that rule of evidence which, in barbarous days 
and barbarous countries, prevented a Christiatt 
from testifying against a Mahomedan, openly 
pronounces the incompetency of the whole Afri- 
can race — whether bond or free — to testify in 
any case against a white man, and, thus having 
already surrendered the slave to all possible 
outrage, crowns its tyranny, by excluding the 
very testimony through which the bloody cru- 
elty of the Slave-master might be exposed. 

Thus in its Law does Slavery paint itself; but 
it is only when we look at details, and detect 
its essential elements — five in nnmher— all in- 
spired by a siiifie motive, that its character be- 
comes completely manifest. 

Foremost, of course, in these elements, is the 
impossible pretension, where Barbarism is lost 
in impiety, by which man claims property in 
man. Against such arrogance the argument is 
brief. According to the law of nature, written by 
the same hand that placed the planets in their 
orbits, and like them, constituting a part of the 
eternal system of the Universe, every human 
being has a complete title to himself direct 
from the Almighty. Naked he is born ; but 
this birthright is inseparable from the human 
form. A man may be poor in this woiWs 
goods ; but he owns himself. No war or rob- 
bery, ancient or recent ; no capture ; no luid- 



die passage ; no change of clime ; no purchase 
money ; no transmission from hand to hand, 
no matter how many times, and no matter at 
what price, can defeat this indefeasible God- 
given franchise. And a Divine mandate, 
strong as that which guards Life, guards Lib- 
erty also. Even at the very morning of Ore 
ation, when God said, let there be Light — 
earlier than the malediction against murder — 
He set an everlasting difference between man 
and a chattel, giving to man dominion over the 
fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, 
«nd over every living thing that moveth upon 
the earth : 

that right we holtl • 

By His doiiaiion ; but man over men 
lie made not lord, bucIi title to Himself 
Reserviii!;, human left from human free. 

Ravery tyrannically assumes a power which 
Ileaven denied, while, under its barbarous 
necromancy, borrowed from the Source of 
Evil, a man is changed into a chattel — a per- 
son is withered into a thing — a soul is shrunk 
into merchandise. Say, sir, in your madness, 
that you own the sun, the stars, the moon ; 
but do not say that you own a man, endowed 
with a soul that shall live immortal, when sun 
and moon and stars have passed away. 

Secondly. Slavery paints itself again in its 
cotuplete ahroyaiion of marriage, recognised 
as a sacrament by the church, and recog- 
nised as a contract wherever civilization 
prevails. Under the law of Slavery, no such 
sacrament is respected, and no such contract 
can exist. The ties that may be formed be- 
tween slaves are all subject to the selfish in- 
terests or more selfish lust of the master, whose 
license knows no check. Natural affections 
which have come together are rudely torn 
asunder ; nor is this all. Stripped of every 
defence, the chastity of a whole race is exposed 
to violence, while the result is recorded in the 
tell-tale faces of children, glowing with their 
master's blood, but doomed for their moth- 
er's skin to Slavery, through all descending 
generations. The Senator from Mississippi 
[Mr. Bkuwn] is galled by the comparison be 
tween Slavery and Polygamy, and winces. I 
hail this sensibility as the sign of virtue. Let 
him reflect, and he will confess, that there are 
many disgusting elements in Slavery, which 
are not present in Polygamy, while the single 
disgusting element of Polygamy is more than 
present in Slavery. By the license of Polyga- 
my, one man may have many wives, all bound 
to him by the marriage tie, and in other re- 
spects protected by law. By the license of 
Slavery, a whole race is delivered over to pros- 
titution and concubinage, without the protec- 
tion of any law. Sir, is not Slavery barba- 
rous? 

Thirdhj. Slavery paints itself again in its 
complete ahogation of the parental relation, 
which God in his benevolence has provided 
for the nurture and education of the human 
family, and which constitutes an essential part 



of Civilization itself. And yet, by the law of Sla 
very — happily beginning to be modified in 
some places — this relation ia set at naught, 
and in its place is substituted the arbitrary 
control of the master, at whose mere command 
little children, such as the Saviour called unto 
him, though clasped by a mother's arms, m.ay be 
swept under the hammer of the auctioneer. I 
do not dwell on this exhibition. Sir, is not 
Slavery barbarous ? 

Fourthly. Slavery paints itself again in clo- 
sing the gates of knowledge, which are also the 
shining gates of civilization. Under its plain 
unequivocal law, the bondman may, at the unre- 
strained will of his master, be shut out from all 
instruction, while in many places, incredible to 
relate I the law itself, by cumulative provisions, 
positively forbids that he shall be taught to 
read. Of course, the slave cannot be allowed 
to read, for his soul would then expand in 
larger air, while he saw the glory of the North 
Star, and also the helping truth, that God, who 
made iron, never made a slave ; for he would 
then become familiar with the Scriptures, with 
the Decalogue still speaking in the thunders 
of Sinai ; with that ancient text, " He that 
stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be 
found in his hands, he shall surely be put to 
death;" with that other text, "Masters, give 
unto your servants that which is just and 
equal ; " with that great story of redemption, 
when the Lord raised the slave-born Moses to 
deliver his chosen people from the house of 
bondage ; and with that sublimer story, where 
the Saviour died a cruel death, that all men, 
without distinction of race, might be saved — 
leaving to mankind commandments, which, 
even without his example, make Slavery im- 
possible. Thus, in order to fasten your man- 
acles upon the slave, you fasten other manacles 
upon his soul. Sir, is not Slavery barbarous ? 
Fifthly. Slavery paints itself again in the 
appropriation of alt the toil of its victims, ex- 
cluding them from that property in their own 
earnings, which the law of nature allows, and 
civilization secures. The painful injustice of 
this pretension is lost in its meanness. It is 
robbery and petty larceny under the garb of 
law. And even its meanness is lost in the ab- 
surdity of its associate pretension, that the 
African, thus despoiled of all his earnings, is 
saved from poverty, and that for his own good 
he must work for his master, and not for him- 
self. Alas ! by such a fallacy, is a whole race 
pauperized 1 And yet this transaction is not 
without illustrative example. A sulemn poet, 
whose verse has found wide favor, pictures a 
creature who, 

With one hand put 

A penny in the urn ofp3viTt>, 

And with the othiT tonlt n shillini? out 

PoUok's '■ Cour-.t of Time,''' Look VIII, 632. 

And a celebrated traveller through Russia, 
more than a generation ago, describes a kin- 
dred spirit, who, while on his knees before an 
altar of the Greek Church, devoutly told hia 



6 



beads with one hand, and with the other delib- 
erately picked the pocket of a fellow-sinner by 
his side. Not admiring these instances, I can- 
not cease to deplore a system which has much 
of both, while, under an affectation of charity, 
it sordidly takes from the slave all the fruits of 
his bitter sweat, and thus takes from him the 
mainspring to exertion. Tell me, sir, is not 
Slavery barbarous ? 

Such is Slavery in its five special elements 
of Barbarism, as recognised by law ; first, as- 
suming that man can hold property in man ; 
secondly, abrogating the relation of husband 
and wife ; thirdly, abrogating the parental tie ; 
fourthly, closing the gates of knowledge ; and 
fifthly, appropriating the unpaid labor of an- 
other. Take away these elements, sometimes 
called " abuses," and Slavery will cease to ex- 
ist, for it is these very " abuses " which consti- 
tute Slavery. Take away any one of them, and 
the abolition of Slavery begins. And when I 
present Slavery for judgment, I mean no slight 
evil, with regard to which there may be a rea- 
sonable difference of opinion, but I mean this 
five-fold embodiment of " abuse " — this ghastly 
quincunx of Bai'barism — each particular of 
which, if considered separately, must be de- 
nounced at once with all the ardor of an hon- 
est soul, while the whole five-fold combination 
must awake a five-fold denunciation. 

But this five-fold combination becomes still 
more hateful when its single motive is consid- 
ered. The Senator from Mississippi [Mr. Da- 
vis] says that it is " but a form of civil govern- 
ment for those who are not fit to govern them- 
selves." The Senator is mistaken. It is an 
outrage whei'e five different pretensions all con- 
cur in one single object, looking only to the 
profit of the master, and constituting its ever- 
present motive power, which is simply to com- 
'pel the labor of fellow-men without wages ! 

If the offence of Slavery were less extended ; 
if it were confined to some narrow region ; if it 
had less of grandeur in its proportions ; if its 
victims were counted by tens and hundreds, 
instead of millions, the fi'fe-headed enormity 
would find little indulgence. All would rise 
against it, while religion and civilization would 
lavish their choicest efforts in the general war- 
fare. But what is wrong when done to one 
man cannot be right when done to many. If 
it is wrong thus to degrade a single soul — if it 
is vraong thus to degrade you, Mr. President — 
it cannot be right to degrade a whole race. 
And yet this is denied by the barbarous logic 
of Slavery, which, taking advantage of its own 
wrong, claims immunity because its Usurpation 
has assumed a front of audacity that cannot be 
safely attacked. Unhappily, there is Barbar- 
ism elsewhere in the world ; but American 
Slavery, as defined by existing law, stands 
forth as the greatest organized Barbarism on 
which the sun now shines. It is without a sin- 
gle peer. Its author, after making it, broke 
the die. 



If curiosity carries U3 to the origin of this 
law — and here I approach a topic often con- 
sidered in this Chamber — we shall confess 
again its Barbarism. It is not derived from 
the common law, that fountain of Liberty ; 
for this law, while unhappily recognising a 
system of servitude, known as villeinage, se- 
cured to the bondman privileges unknown to 
the American slave; protected his person 
against mayhem ; protected his wife against 
rape ; gave to his marriage equal validity with 
the marriage of his master, and surrounded his 
offspring with generous presumptions of Free- 
dom, unlike that rule of yours by which the 
servitude of the mother is necessarily stamped 
upon the child. It is not derived from the Ro- 
man law, that fountain of tyranny, for two rea- 
sons — first, because this law, in its better days, 
when its early rigors were spent — like the com- 
mon law itself — secured to the bondman privi- 
leges unknown to the American slave — in cer- 
tain cases of cruelty rescued him from his mas- 
ter — prevented the separation of parents and 
children, also of brothers and sisters — and even 
protected him in the marriage relation ; and 
secondly, because the Thirteen Colonies were 
not derived from any of those countries which 
recognised the Roman law, while this law even 
before the discovery of this continent had lost 
all living efficacy. It is not derived from the 
Mahomedan law; for under the mild injunc- 
tions of the Koran, a benignant servitude, un- 
like yours, has prevailed — where the lash is not 
allowed to lacerate the back of a female ; where 
no knife or branding-iron is employed upon 
any human being to mark him as the property 
of his fellow-man ; where the master is expressly 
enjoined to listen to the desires of his slave for 
emancipation ; and where the blood of the 
master, mingling with his bond-woman, takes 
from her the transferable character of a chat- 
tel, and confers complete freedom upon their 
offspring. It is not derived from the Spanish 
law; for this law contains humane elements, 
unknown to your system, borrowed, perhaps, 
from the Mahomedan Moors who so long occu- 
pied Spain ; and, besides, our Thirteen Colonies 
had no umbilical connection with Spain. Nor 
is it derived from English statutes or American 
^atutes 5 for we have the positive and repeated 
averment of the Senator from Virginia [Mr. 
Mason] and also of other Senators that in not 
a single State of the Union can any such stat- 
utes establishing Slavery be found. From none 
of these does it come. 

No, sir ; not from any land of civilization is 
this Barbarism derived. It comes from Africa; 
ancient nurse of monsters ; from Guinea, Da- 
homey, and Congo. There is its origin and 
fountain. This benighted region, we are told 
by Chief Justice Marshall in a memorable 
judgment, {The Antelope, 10 Wbeaton R., 66,) 
still asserts a right, discarded by Christendom, 
to enslave captives taken in war ; and this Af- 
rican Barbarism is the beginning of American 



Slavery. And the Supreme Court of Georgia, 
a Slave Slate, has not bhrunk from this con- 
clusion. " Licensed to hold slave property," 
says the Court, " the Georgia planter held the 
slave as a chattel; either directly from the 
slave-trader, or from those who held under him, 
and he from the slave-captor in Africa. The 
property of the planter in the slave became, 
thus, the property of the original captor." 
(iVt;«/v. Farmer, 9 Georgia Reports, p. 555.) 
It is natural that a right, thus derived in 
defiance of Christendom, and openly founded 
on the most vulgar Paganism, should be ex- 
ercised without any mitigating influence from 
Christianity ; that the master's authority over 
the person of his slave — over his conjugal re- 
klatious — over his parental relations — over the 
^employment of his time — over all his acquisi- 
tions, should be recognised, while no generous 
presumption inclines to Freedom, and the womb 
of the bond-woman can deliver only a slave. 

From its home in Africa, where it is sus- 
tained by immemorial usage, this Barbarism, 
thus derived and thus developed, traversed the 
ocean to American soil. It entered on board 
that fatal slave-ship " built in the eclipse, and 
rigged with curses dark," which in 1620 land- 
ed its cruel cargo at Jamestown, in Virginia, 
and it has boldly taken its place in every suc- 
ceeding slave-ship fromthat early day till now — 
helping to pack the human freight, regardless 
of human agony ; surviving the torments of the 
middle passage ; surviving its countless vic- 
tims plunged beneath the waves; and it has 
left the slave-ship only to travel inseparable 
lro:2 the slave in his various doom, sanction- 
ing by its barbarous code every outrage, 
whether of mayhem or robbery, of lash or lust, 
and fastening itself upon his offspring to the re- 
motest generation. Thus are the barbarous pre- 
rogatives of barbarous half-naked African chiefs 
perpetuated in American Slave-masters, while 
the Senator from Virginia, [Mr. Mason,^ perhaps 
unconscious of their origin — perhaps desirous 
to secure for them the appearance of a less 
barbarous pedigree — tricks them out with a 
phrase of the Roman law, discarded by the 
common law, partus seqidtur ventrem, which 
simply renders into ancient Latin an existing 
rule of African Barbarism, recognised as an 
existing rule of American Slavery. 

Such is the plain juridical origin of the 
American slave code, which is now vaunted as 
a badge of Civilization. But all law, what- 
ever may be its juridical origin, whether Eng- 
lish or Mahomedaa, Roman or African, may 
be traced to other and ampler influences in 
nature, sometimes of Right, and sometimes of 
Wrong. Surely the law which blasted the 
• slave-trade as piracy punishable with death 
bad a different inspiration from that other law, 
which secured immunity for the slave-trade 
throughout an immense territory, and invested 
Its supporters with political power. As there 



is a higher law aoove, so there is a lower law 
below, and each is felt in human affairs. 

Thus far, we have seen Slavery only in its 
pretended law, and in the erigin of that law. 
And here I might stop, without proceeding 
in this argument; for, on the letter of the 
law alone Slavery must be condemned. But 
the tree is known by its fruits, and these I now 
shall exhibit ; and this brings me to the sec- 
ond stage of the argument. 

(2.) lu considering the practical results oj 
Slavert/, the materials are so obvious and 
diversitied, that my chief care will be to 
abridge and reject ; and here I shall put the 
Slave States and Free States face to face, show- 
ing at eacb point the blasting influence of Sla- 
very. 

The States where this Barbarism now exists 
excel the Free States in all natural advantages. 
Their territory is more extensive, stretching 
over 851,448 square miles, while the Free States, 
including California, embrace only 612,597 
square miles. Here is a difference of more 
than 238,000 square miles in favor of the Slave 
States, showing that Freedom starts in this great 
controversy, with a field more than a quarter 
less than that of Slavery. In happiness of cli- 
mate, adapted to productions of special value; 
inexhaustless motive power distributed through- 
out its space; in natural highways, by more 
than fifty navigable rivers, never closed by the 
rigors of winter, and in a stretch of coast along 
ocean and gulf, indented by hospitable har- 
bors — the whole presenting incomparable ad- 
vantages for that true civilization where agri- 
culture, manufactures, and commerce, both do- 
mestic and foreign, blend — in all these respects 
the Slave States excel the Free States, whose 
climate is often churlish, whose motive power 
is less various, whose navigable rivers are fewer 
and often sealed by ice, and whose coast, while 
less in extent and with fewer harbors, is often 
perilous from storm and cold. 

But Slavery plays the part of a Harpy, and 
defiles the choicest banquet. See what it does 
with this territory, thus spacious and fair. 

An important indication of prosperity is to 
be found in the growth of population. In this 
respect the two regions started equal. In 
1790, at the first census under the Constitu- 
tion, the population of the present Slave States 
was 1,961,372, of the present Free States 
1,968,455, showing a difference of only 7,083 
in favor of the Free States. This difference, at 
first merely nominal, has been constantly in- 
creasing since, showing itself more strongly in 
each decennial census, until, in 1850, the pop- 
ulation of the Slave States, swollen by the an- 
nexation of three foreign Territories, Louis- 
iana, Florida, and Texas, was only 9,612,769, 
while that of the Free States, without any 
such annexations, reached 13,434,922, show- 
ing a difference of 3,822,153 in favor of Free- 



8 



dom. But this difference becomes still more 
remarkable, if we confine our inquiries to the 
white population, which, at this period, was 
only 6,184,477 in the Slave States, while it was 
13,238,070 in the Free States, showing a differ- 
ence of more than 7,054,193 in favor of Free- 
dom, and showing that the white population of 
the Free States had not only doubled but com- 
menced to triple that of the Slave States, al- 
though occupying a smaller territory. The 
comparative sparseness of the two populations 
furnishes another illustration. In the Slave 
States the average number of inhabitants to a 
square mile was 11.28, while in the Free States 
it was 21.93, or almost two to one in favor of 
Freedom. 

These results are general ; but if we take 
any particular Slave State, and compare it with 
a Free State, we shall find the same constant 
evidence for Freedom. Take Virginia, with a 
territory of 61,352 miles, and New York, with 
a territory of 47,000, or over 14,000 square 
miles less than her sister State. New York 
has one sea-port, Virginia some three or four ; 
New York has one noble river, Virginia has 
several ; New York for 400 miles runs along 
the frozen line of Canada ; Virginia basks in a 
climate of constant felicity. But Freedom is 
better than climate, rivers, or sea-port ! 

In 1790 the population of Virginia was 
748,308, and in 1850 it was 1,421,661. In 1790, 
the population of New York was 340,120, and 
in 1850 it was 3,097,394 ; that of Virginia had 
not doubled in sixty years, while that of New 
York had multiplied more than nine-fold. A 
similar comparison may be made between Ken- 
tucky, with 37,680 square miles, admitted into 
the Union as long ago as 1790, and Ohio, with 
39,964 square miles, admitted into the Union 
in 1802. In 1850, the Slave State had a popu- 
lation of only 982,405, while Ohio had a popu- 
lation of 1,980,329, showing a difference of 
nearly a million in favor of Freedom. 

As in population, so also in the value of 
property, real and personal, do the Free States 
excel the Slave States. According to the cen- 
sus of 1850, the value of property in the Free 
States was ^4,107, 162,198, while in the Slave 
States it was $2,936,090,737 ; or, if we deduct 
the asserted property in human flesh, only 
$1,655,945,137 — showing an enormous differ- 
ence of billions in favor of Freedom. In the 
Free States the valuation per acre was $10.47, 
in the Slave States only $3.04. This dispro- 
portion was still greater in 1855, according to 
the report of the Secretary of the Treasury, 
when the valuation of the Free States was 
$5,770,194,680; or $14.72 per acre; and of 
the Slave States, $3,977,353,946, or, if we de- 
duct the asserted property in human flesh, 
S2,505, 186,346, or $4.59 per acre. Thus, in 
live years from 1850, the valuation of property 
in the Free States received an increase of more 
than the whole accumulated valuation of the 
Slave States at that time. 



Looking at details, we find the same dispro- 
portions. Arkansas and Michigan, equa^ in 
territory, were admitted into the Union in the 
same year; and yet, in 1855, the whole valua- 
tion of Arkansas, including its asserted proper- 
ty in human flesh, was only $64,240,726, while 
that of Michigan, without a single slave, was 
$116,593,580. The whole accumulated valua- 
tion of all the Slave States, deducting the as- 
serted property in human flesh, in 1850, was 
only $1,655,945,137 ; but the valuation of New 
York alone, in 1855, reached the nearly equal 
sum of $1,401,285,279. The valuation of Vir- 
ginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Flor- 
ida, and Texas, all together, in 1850, deducting 
human flesh, was $573,332,860, or simply $1.81 ^ 
per acre — being less than that of Massachusetts ^P 
alone, which was $573,342,286, or $114.85 per ^ 
acre. 

The Slave States boast of agriculture ; but 
here again, notwithstanding their superior nat- 
ural advantages, they must yield to the free 
States at every point, in the number of farms 
and plantations, in the number of acres of im- 
proved lands, in the cash value of farms, in the 
average value per acre, and in the value of 
farming implements and machinery. Here is 
a short table : 

Free States. — Number of farms, 877,736; 
acres of improved land, 57,688,040 ; cash value 
of farms, $2,143,344,437 ; average value per 
acre, $19.83; value of farming implements, 
$85,736,658. 

Slave States. — Number of farms, 564,203 ; 
acres of improved land, 54,970,427 ; cash value 
of farms, $1,117,649,649; average value per 
acre, $6.18 ; value of farming implements, 
$65,345,625. 

Such is the mighty contrast. But it does not 
stop here. Careful tables place the agricul- 
tural products of the Free States, for the year 
ending June, 1850, at $858,634,334, while those 
of the Slave States were $631,277,41 7 ; the prod- 
uct per acre in the Free States at $7.94, and the 
product per acre in the Slave States at $3.49 ; 
and the average product of each agriculturist 
in the Free States at |342, and in the Slave 
States at $171. Thus the Free States, with a 
smaller population engaged in agriculture than 
the Slave States, with smaller territory, show 
an annual sum total of agricultural products 
surpassing those of the Slave States by two hun- 
dred and twenty-seven millions of dollars, while 
twice as much is produced on an acre, and more 
than twice as much is produced by each agri- 
culturist. The monopoly of cotton, rice, and 
cane sugar, with a climate granting two and 
sometimes three crops in a year, are thus 
impotent in the competition with Freedom. 

In manufactures, the failure of the Slave 
States is greater still. It appears at all points, 
in the capital employed, in the value of the raw 
material, in the annual wages, and in the an- 
nual product. A short table will show the COQ- 
trast: 




Free /S/a^es. — Capital, $430,240,051; value 
of raw material, $405,844,092 ; annual wages, 
$195,97().l53; annual product, $842,586,058. 

Slave iiiaies. — Cap\t6.\, $95,029,879; value 
of raw material, $86,190,689; annual wages, 
$03,257,360; annuijl product, $165,413,027. 

This might be illustrated by details with 
regard to ditfereut manufactures — whether of 
ekoes, cotton, woollen, pig iron, wrought iron, 
and iron castings — all showing the contrast. 
It might also be illustrated by a comparison 
between different States ; showing, for in- 
stance, that the manufactures of Massachu- 
setts, during the last year, exceeded those of all 
the Slave States combined. 

lu commerce, the failure of the Slave States 
is on yet a larger scale. Under this head, the 
census does not supply proper statistics, and 
we are left, therefore, to approximations from 
other quarters ; but these are enough for our 
purpose. It appears that, of the products which 
enter into commerce, the Free States had an 
amount valued at $1,377,199,968; the Slave 
States au amount valued only at $410,754,992 ; 
that of the persons engaged in trade, the Free 
States had 136,856, and the Slave States 52,622 ; 
and that of the tonnage employed, the Free 
States had 2,790.195 tons, and the Slave States 
only 726,285. This was in 1850. But in 1855 
the disproportion was still greater, the Free 
States having 4,252,615 tons, and the Slave 
States 855,517 tons, being a difference of five 
to one ; and the tonnage of Massachusetts alone 
being 970,727 tons, an amount larger than 
that of all the Slave States. The tonnage built 
during this year by the Free States was 528,844 
tons ; by the Slave States, 52,959 tons. Maine 
alone built 215,905 tons, or more than four 
times the whole built in the Slave States. 

The foreign commerce, as indicated by the 
exports and imports in 1855, of the Free 
States, was $404,368,503 ; of the Slave Stales, 
$132,067,216. The exports of the Free States 
were $167,520,693 ; of the Slave States, inclu- 
ding the vaunted cotton crop, $132,007,216. 
The imports ofthe Free States were $236,847,8 10; 
of the Slave States, $24,586,528. The foreign 
commerce of New York alone was more than 
twice as large as that of all the Slave States ; her 
imports were larger, and her expoi-ts were lar- 
ger also. Add to this testimony of figures the 
testimony of a Virginian, Mr. Loudon, in a let- 
ter written just before the sitting of a Southern 
Commercial Convention. Thus he complains 

and testifies : 

" There are not half a dozen vessels engaged in our own 
trade that are owned in Virginia; and I have been unable to 
find a vessel at Liverpool loading for Virginia within three 
years, during the height ofour busy season." 

Railroads and canals are the avenues of 
commerce ; and here again the Free States 
excel. Of railroads in operation in 1854, there 
were 13,105 miles in the Free States, and 4,212 
in the Slave States. Of canals there were 
3,682 miles in the Free States, and 1,116 in 
the Slave States. 



The Post Office, which is not only the agent 
of commerce, but of civilization, joins in the 
uniform testimony. According to the tables 
for 1859, the postage collected in the Free 
States was $5,532,999, ^nd the expense of car- 
rying the mails $6,748,189, leaving a deficit of 
$1,215,189. In the i^lave States the amouni 
collected was only $1,988,050, and the expense 
of carrying the mails $r>,016,612, leaving the 
enormous deficit of $4,028,568: the difference 
between the two deficits being $2,813,372. The 
Slave States did not pay oue-rhird of the ex- 
pense of transporting their mails ; and not a 
single Slave State paid for the transportation 
of its mails ; not even the small State of Dela- 
ware. Massachusetts, besides paying for hers, 
had a surplus larger than the whole amount 
collected in South Carolina. 

According to the census of 1850, the value 
of churches in the Free States was $67,773,477 ; 
in the Slave States, $21,674,581. 

The voluntarij charity contributed in 1855, 
for certain leading purposes of Christian be- 
nevolence, was, in the Free States, $953,813; 
for the same purposes, in the Slave States, 
$194,784. For the Bible cause, the Free States 
contributed $319,667 ; the Slave States, $68, 125. 
For the missionary cause, the first contributed 
$319,667 ; and the second, $101,934. For the 
Tract Society, the first contributed $131,972; 
and the second, $24,725. The amount con- 
tributed in Massachusetts for the support of 
missions was greater than that contributed by 
all the Slave States, and more than eight times 
that contributed by South Carolina. 

Nor have the Free States been backward 
in charity, when the Slave States have been 
smitten. The records of Massachusetts show 
that as long ago as 1781, at the beginning of 
the Government, there was an extensive contri- 
bution throughout the Commonwealth, under 
the particular direction of that eminent patriot, 
Samuel Adams, for the relief of inhabitants of 
South Carolina and Georgia. In 1855 we were 
saddened by the prevalence of yellow fever in 
Portsmouth, Virginia ; and now, from a report 
of the relief committee of that place, we learn 
that the amount of charity contributed by the 
Slave States, exclusive of Virginia, the afflicted 
State, wa.s $12,182 ; and, including Virginia, it 
was $33. 398 ; while $42,547 were contributed 
by the Free States. 

In all this array we see the fatal influence of 
Slavery, but its Barbarism is yet more conspicu' 
ous when we consider its Educational Estab- 
lishments, and the unhappy results, which 
naturally ensue from their imperfect character. 

Of colleges, in 1856, the Free States had 61, 
and the Slave States 59 ; but the comparative 
efficacy of the institutions which assume this 
name may be measured by certain facts. -The 
number of graduates in the Free States was 
47,752, in the Slave States 19,648; the number 
of ministers educated in Slave colleges was 747, 
in the B'ree colleges 10,702 ; and the number of 



10 



volumes iu the libraries of Slave colleges 
308,011; in the libraries of the Free colleges 
607,227. If the materials were at hand for a 
comparison between these colleges, in buildings, 
cabinets, and scientific apparatus, or in the 
standard of scholarship, the difference would be 
still more apparent. 

Oi' professional schools, teaching law, medi- 
cine, and theology, the Free States had 65, with 
2G9 professors, 4,426 students, and 175,951 
volumes in their libraries, while the Slave States 
had only 32 proffessional schools, with 122 pro- 
fessors, 1,807 students, and 30,796 volumes iu 
their libraries. The whole number educated at 
these institutions in the Free States was 23,513, 
in the Slave States 3,812. Of these, the largest 
number in the Slave States study law, next 
medicine, and lastly theology. According to 
the census, there are only 808 in the Slave 
theological schools, and 747 studying for the 
ministry in the Slave colleges ; and this is all 
the record we have of the education of the Slave 
clergy. 

Of academies and private schools, in 1850, 
the Free States, notwithstanding their multitu- 
dinous public schools, had 3,197, with 7,175 
teachers, 154,893 pupils, and an annual income 
of $2,457,372 ; the Slave Siates had 2,797 
academies and private schopls, with 4,913 
teachers, 104,976 pupils, and an annual in- 
come of $2,079,724. In the absence of public 
schools, to a large extent, where Slavery exists, 
the dependence must be chiefly upon private 
schools; and yet even in these the Slave States 
fall below the Free States, whether we consider 
the number of pupils, the number of teachers, 
or the amount paid for their support. 

Iu public schools, open to ali, alike the poor 
and the rich, the omiuence of the Free Stat-is is 
complete. Here the figures show a difference as 
wide as that between Freedom and Slavery. 
Their number in the Free States is 62,433, with 
72,621 teachers, and with 2,769,901 pupils, sup- 
ported by an annual expense of $6,780,337. 
Their number in the Slave States is 18,507, with 
19,307 teachers, and with 581,861 pupils, sup- 
ported by an annual expense of $2,719,534. 
This difference may be illustrated by details. 
Virginia, an old State, and more than a third 
larger than Ohio, has 67,353 pupils in her pub- 
lic schools, while the latter State has 484,153. 
Arkansas, equal in age and size with Michi- 
gan, has only 8,493 pupils at her public schools, 
while the latter State has 110,455. South 
Carolina, three times as large as Massachu- 
setts, has 17,838 pupils at public school, 
while the latter State has 176,475. South 
Carolina spends for this purpose, annually, 
$200,600; Massachusetts, $1,006,795. Balti- 
more, with a population of 169,012, on the 
northern verge of Slavery, has school buildings 
valued at $105,729 ; those of Hoston are valued 
at $729,502. Boston, with a population smaller 
than that of Baltimore, has 203 public schools, 
with 353 teachers, and 21,678 pupils, supported 



at an annual expense of $237,000 ; Baltimore 
has only 36 public schools, with 138 teachers, 
and 8,011 pupils, supported at an annual ex- 
pense of $32,423. But even these figures do 
not disclose the whole difference ; for there 
exist in the Free Stat«s teachers' institutes, 
normal schools, lyceums, and public courses of 
lectures, which are unknown in the region of 
Slavery. These advantages are enjoyed also 
by the children of colored persons ; and here 
is a comparison which shows the degrada- 
tion of the Slave States. It is their habit 
particularly to deride free colored persons. 
See, now, with what cause. The number of 
colored persons in the Free States is 196,016, 
of whom 22,043, or more than one-ninth, at- 
tend school, which is a larger proportion than 
is supplied by the whites of the Slave States. 
In Massachusetts there are 9,064 colored per- 
sons, of whom 1,439, or nearly one sixth, at- 
tend school, which is a much larger proportion 
than is supplied by the whites of South Carolina. 

Among educational establishments are pub- 
lic libraries ; and here, again, the Free States 
have their customary eminence, whether we 
consider libraries strictly called public, or li- 
braries of the common school, of the Sunday 
school, of the college, and of the church. 
Here the disclosures are startling. The num- 
ber of libraries in the Free States is 14,911, and 
the sum total of volumes is 3,888,234 ; the 
number of libraries in the Slave States is 
695, and the sum total of volumes is 649,577 ; 
showing an excess for Freedom of mora than 
fourteen thousand libraries, and more than 
three millions of volumes. In the Free States 
the common school libraries are 11,881, aud 
contain 1,589,683 volumes; in the Slave States 
they are 186, and contain 57,721 volumes. In 
the Free States the Sunday school libraries are 
1,713, and contain 478,858 volumes; in the 
Slave States they are 275, and contain 63,463 
volumes. In the Free States the college libra- 
ries are 132, and contain 660,573 volumes ; 
in the Slave States they are 79, and contain 
249,248 volumes. In the Free States the 
church libraries are 109, and contain 52,723 
volumes; in the Slave States they are 21, and 
contain 5,627 volumes. In the Free States the 
libraries strictly called public, and not inclu- 
ded under the heads already enumerated, are 
1,058, and contain 1,106,397 volumes; those of 
the Slave States are 152, and contain 273,518 
volumes. 

Turn these figures over, look at them in any 
light, and the conclusion will be irresistible for 
Freedom. The college libraries alone of the 
Free States are greater than all the libraries of 
blavery. So, also, are the libraries of Massa- 
chusetts alone greater than all the libraries 
of Slavery ; and the common school libraries 
alone of New York are more than twice as 
large as all the libraries of Slavery. Michigan 
has 107,943 volumes in her libraries; Arkan- 
sas has 420. 



11 



Amonfj educational establishments, one of 
the most efficient is the Press; and here again 
all things testify for Freedom. The Free States 
excel in the number of newspapers and period- 
icals puhlislied, whether daily, semi-weekly, 
woelilv, semi-monthly, monthly, or quarterly; 
and whatever their character, whether literary, 
neutral, political, religious, or scientific. The 
whole ac:!ire<rate circulation in the Free States 
is 8r,4,l'4G,28l ; in the Slave States, 81,038,Gi);j. 
In Free Michigan, 3,247, Tofi ; in Slave Arkan- 
sas, 377,000. lu Free Ohio. 30,473,407 ; in 
Sl'Ave Kentucky, 6,582,838. In Slave South 
Carolina, 7,145,930 ; in Free Massachusetts, 
(>4.820,5t)4 — a larger number than in the ten 
Mave States, Jlaryland, Virginia, North Caro- 
lina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mis- 
sissippi, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, com- 
bined. This enormous disproportion in the 
aggregate is also preserved in the details. In 
the Slave States, political newspapers find more 
favor than any others ; but even of these they 
publish only 47.243,209 copies, while the Free 
States publish 163,583,008. Of neutral news- 
papers, the Slave States publish 8,812,020 ; the 
Free States, 79,156,738. Of religious newspa- 
pers, the Slave States publish 4,364,832 ; the 
Free States, 29,280,052. Of literary journals, 
the Slave Stales publish 20,245.360 ; the Free 
States, 57,478,768. And of scientific journals, 
the Slave Slates publish 372,672 ; the Free 
States, 4,521,260. Of these latter, the number 
of copies published in Massachusetts alone is 
2,033,260 — more than five times the number in 
the whole land of Slavery. Thus, in contribu- 
tions to science, literature, religion, and even 
politics, as attested by the activity of the peri- 
odical press, do the Slave States miserably fail, 
while darkness gathers over them. And this 
seems to be increasing with time. According 
to the census of 1810, the disproportion in this 
respect between the two regions was only as 
two to one. It is now more than five to one, 
and is still going on. 

The same disproportion appears with regard 
to persons ponnected with the Press. In the 
Free States, the number of printers was 11,822, 
of whom 1,229 were in Massachusetts; in the 
slave Slates there were 2,895, of whom South 
Carolina had only 141. In the Free States, the 
number of 'publishers was 331 ; in the Slave 
States, 24. Of these, Massachusetts had 59, 
or more than twice as many as all the Slave 
States; while South Carolina had none. In 
the Free States, the autJwrs v/ere 73 ; in the 
Slave States, 9 — of whom Mass.ichusetts had 
17, and South Carolina 2. These suggestive 
illustrations are all derived from the last official 
census. But if we go to other sources, the 
contrast is still the same. Of the authors 
mentioned in Duyckink's Cyclopedia of Amer- 
ican Literature, 403 are of the Free States, 
and only 87 of the Slave States. Of the poets 
mentioned in Griswold's Poets and Poetry of 
America, 123 arc of the Free States, and only 



17 of the Slave States. Of the poets, whose 
place of birth appears in Reed's Female Poets 
of America, 73 are of the Free States, and 
only 11 of the Slave States. And if we try 
authors by weight or quality, it is the same as 
when we try them by numbers. Out of the 
Free States have come all whose works havo 
taken a place in the permanent literature ol 
the country — Irving, Prescott, Sparks, Ban- 
croft, Emerson, Motley, Hildreth, and Haw- 
thorne ; also, Bryant, Longfellow, Dana, Hal- 
leek, Whittier, and Lowell — and I might add 
indefinitely to the list. But what name from 
the Slave States could find a place there ? 

A similar disproportion appears in the num 
her of Patents, attesting the inventive industry 
of the contrasted regions, issued during the 
last three years, 1857, 1858, and 1859. In the 
Free States there were 9,560 ; in the Slave 
States, 1,449 — making a difference of 8,111 in 
favor of Freedom. The number in Free Mas- 
sachusetts was 972 ; in Slave South Carolina, 
39. The number in Free Connecticut, small in 
territory and population, was 628 ; in Slave 
Virginia, large in territory and population, 18-4. 
From all these things we might infer the 
ignorance prevalent in the Slave States ; but 
this shows itself in specific results of a deplora- 
ble character, authenticated by the official 
census. It appears that in the Slave States 
there were 493,026 native white persons over 
twenty years of age who cannot read and write, 
while in the Free States, with double the white 
population, there were but 248,725 native whites 
over twenty years of age in this unhappy pre- 
dicament. In the Slave States the proportion 
was 1 to 12 ; in the Free States it was 1 to 53. 
The number in Free Massachusetts, with a pop- 
ulation of nearly a million, was 1,005, or 1 in 
517 ; the number in Slave South Carolina, with 
a population under three hundred thousand, 
was 15,580, or 1 in 1. The number in Free 
Connecticut was 1 in 277 ; in Slave Virginia, 1 
in 5 ; in free New Hampshire 1 in 201, and 
in Slave North Carolina, 1 in 3. 

Before closing this picture of Slavery, where 
the dismal colors all come from official figures, 
there are two other aspects in which for a mo- 
ment it may be regarded : 

1. The first is thie influence which it has on 
emigration. It is stated in the otficial com- 
pendium of the census, (page 115,) that those 
persons living in Slave States who are natives 
of Free States are more numerous than those 
living in Free States who are natives of Slave 
States. This is an egregious error. Just the 
contrary is true. The census of 1850 found 
609,371 in the Free States who were born in the 
Slave States, while only 206.638 born in the 
Free States were in the Slave States. And since 
the white population of the Free States is double 
that of the Slave States, it appears that the pro- 
portion of whites moving from Slavery is six 
times greater than that of whites moving into 
slavery. In this aimple fact is disclosed some- 



12 



thing of the aversion to Slavery which is aroused 
even in the Slave States. 

2. The second aspect is furnished by the 
character of the region on the border line be- 
tween Freedom and Slavery. In general, the 
value of lands in -Slave States adjoining Free- 
dom is advanced, while the value of corres- 
ponding lands in Free States is diminished. 
The effects of Freedom and Slavery are recipro- 
cal. Slavery is a bad neighbor. Freedom is 
a good neighbor. In Virginia, lands naturally 
poor are, by their nearness to Freedom, worth 
$12.98 an acre, while richer lands in other 
parts of the State are worth only $8.42. In 
Illinois, lands bordering upon Slavery are worth 
only 14.54 an acre, while other lands in Illinois 
are worth $8.05. As in the value of lands so 
in all other influences is Slavery felt for evil, 
and Freedom felt for good ; and thus is it clearly 
shown to be for the interest of the Slave States 
to be surrounded by a circle of Free States. 

Thus, at every point is the character of Slave- 
ry more and more manifest, rising and dilating 
into an overshadowing Barbarism, darkening 
the whole land. Through its influence, popu- 
lation, values of all kinds, manufactures, com- 
merce, railroads, canals, charities, the post of- 
fice, colleges, professional schools, academies, 
public schools, newspapers, periodicals, books, 
authorship, inventions, are all stunted, and, 
under a Government which professes to be 
founded on the intelligence of the people, one 
in twelve of the white adults in the region of 
Slavery is officially reported as unable to read 
and write. Never was the saying of Montes- 
quieu more triumphantly verified, that coun- 
tries are not cultivated by reason of their fer- 
tility, but by reason of their liberty. To this 
truth the Slave States constantly testify by every 
possible voice. Liberty is the powerful agent 
•rhich drives the plow, the spindle, and the keel ; 
.tffhich opens avenues of all kinds ; which in- 
spires charity ; which awakens a love of knowl- 
edge, and supplies the means of gratifying it. 
Liberty is the first of schoolmasters. 

Unerring and passionless figures thus far 
have been our witnesses. But their testimony 
will be enhanced by a final glance at the geo- 
(fvaphical cJiaracier of the Slave States ; and 
here there is a singular and instructive par- 
allel. 

Jefferson described Virginia as fast sinking to 
be " the Barbary of the Union " — meaning, of 
course, the Barbary of his day, which had not 
yet turned against Slavery. In this allusion he 
was wiser than he knew. Though on difi'erent 
sides of the Atlantic and on different continents, 
cur Slave States and the original Barbary 
States occupy nearly the same parallels of lati- 
tude; occupy nearly the same extent of longi- 
tude; embrace nearly the same number of 
square miles; enjoy kindred advantages of cli 
mate, being equally removed from the cold of the 
North and the burning heat of the tropics; and 
also enjoy kindred boundaries of land and water, 



with kindred advantages of ocean and sea, witB 
this difference, that the boundaries of the two 
regions are precisely reversed, so that where 
is land in one case is water in the other, 
while in both cases there is the same extent of 
ocean and the same extent of sea. Nor is this 
all. Algiers, for a long time the most obnoxious 
place in the Barb.T-ry States of Africa, once 
branded by an inaignant chronicler as "the 
wall of the barbarian world," is situated near 
the parallel of 36° 30^ north latitude, being the 
line of the Missouri compromise, which once 
marked the "wall" of Slavery in our country 
west of the Mississippi, while Morocco, the 
chief present seat of Slavery in the African Bar- 
bary, is on the parallel of Charleston. There 
are no two spaces on the surface of the globe, 
equal in extent, (and an examination of the 
map will verify what I am about to state,), 
which present so many distinctive features of 
resemblance ; whether we consider the common 
parallels of latitude on which they lie, the com- 
mon nature of their boundaries, their common 
productions, their common climate, or the com- 
mon Barbarism which sought shelter in both. 
1 do not stop to inquire why Slavery — banished at 
last from Europe, banished also from that part 
of this hemisphere which corresponds in lati- 
tude to Europe — should have entrenched itself 
in both hemispheres between the same paral- 
lels of latitude, so that Virginia, Carolina, Mis- 
sissippi, and Missouri, should be the American 
complement to Morocco, Algiers, Tripoli, and 
Tunis. But there is one important point in the 
parallel which remains to be fulfilled. The 
barbarous Emperor of Morocco, in the words 
of a Treaty, has expressed his desire that Sla- 
very might pass from the memory of men, while 
Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis, after cherishing 
Slavery with a tenacity equalled only by the 
tenacity of South Carolina, have successively, 
renounced it and delivered it over to the indig- 
nation of mankind. In following this example 
the parallel will be complete, and our Barbary 
will become the complement in Freedom to the 
African Barbary, as it has already been its 
complement in Slavery, atid is unquestionably 
its complement in geographical character. 

II. From the consideration of Slavery in 
its practical results, illustrated by the con- 
trast between the Free States and Slave States, 
I pass now to another stage of the argument, 
and proceed to exhibit Slavery in its influence 
on the Character of Slave-masters. Nothing 
could I undertake more painful, and yet there is 
nothing v^hich is more essential to the discus- 
sion, especially in response to the pretensions 
of Senators on this floor, nor is there any point 
on which the evidence is more complete. 

It is in the Character of Slavery itself that 
we are to find the Character of Slave- masters; 
but I need not go back to the golden lips of 
Chrysostom to learn that " Slavery is the fruit 
of covetousness, of extravagance, of insatiable 



13 



greediness;" for we have already seen that 
this five-fold enormity is inspired by the single 
idea of compelling men to work icilhoitt wages. 
This spirit must naturally appear in the Slave- 
master. But the eloqueut Christian Saint did 
not disclose tho whole truth. Slavery is found- 
ed on violence, as we have already too clearly 
seen ; of course it can be sustained only by 
kindred violence, sometimes against the de- 
fenceless slave, sometimes against the freeman 
whose indignation is aroused at the outrage. 
It is founded on brutal and vulgar pretensions, 
as we have already too clearly seen ; of course 
it can be sustained only by kindred brutality 
and vulgarity. The denial of all rights in the 
slave can be sustained only by a disregard of 
other rights, common to the whole community, 
whether of the person, of the press, or of speech. 
Where this exists there can be but one supreme 
law, to which all other laws, legislative or so- 
cial, are subordinate, and this is the pretended 
law of Slavery. All these things must be 
manifest in Slave-masters, and yet, unconscious 
of their true coudilion, they make boasts which 
reveal still further the unhappy influence. 
Barbarous standards of conduct are unblush- 
iiigly avowed. The swagger of a bully is called 
chivalry ; a swiftness to quarrel is called cour- 
age ; the bludgeon is adopted as the substitute 
foi' argument ; and assassination is lifted to be 
one of the Fine Arts. Long ago it was fixed 
certain that the day which made man a slave 
" took half his worth away " — words from the 
ancient harp of Homer, resounding through 
long generations. Nothing here is said of the 
human being at the other end of the chain. 
To aver that on this same day all his worth is 
taken away might seem inconsistent with ex- 
ceptions which we gladly recognise ; but alas ! 
it is too clear, both from reason and from evi- 
dence, that, bad as Slavery is for the Slave, it is 
worse for the Master. 

In making this exposure I am fortified, at 
the outset, by two classes of authorities, whose 
testimony it will be difficult to question; the 
first is American, and founded on personal 
experience ; the second is philosophical, and 
founded on everlasting truth. 

First, American Authoriiy ; and here I ad- 
duce words often quoted, which dropped from 
the lips of Slave-masters in those better days 
when, seeing the wrong of Slavery, they es- 
caped from its injurious influence. Of these, 
none expressed themselves with more vigor 
than Colonel Mason, a Slave-master from Vir- 
ginia, in debate on the adoption of the Nation- 
al Constitution. These are his words : 

•'Shivery uiscourajes arls and manufactures. The 
poor tlespisf^ lal)or when pe'formed by slaves. They 
prevent the emijraiiou of whites, who realiy enrich and 
sirenglhen a coaulry. Tftfi/ produce the most pernidnus 
effect on manners. Every Master of Slaves is bobn a 
I'ETTY TYRANT. Thev brnig the judgment of Jtleavea on a 
country.''' 

Thus, with a few touches, does this Slave- 
master portray his class, putting them in that 
hateful list, which, according to every principle 



of liberty, must be resisted so long as we obey 
God. And this same testimony also found ex- 
pression from the fiery soul of Jeftersou. Here 
are some of his words : 

"There must be un unhappy influence on the manners 
of our people, produeed iiy the existence of Slavery 
amonj us. The whole commerce heiween masster and 
slave is a perpetual ext-rci^o of the mo<t boi-terous pas- 
sions, the MOST UNRKMiTTiNu DKspoTisM On the One purt, 
and dej;riidiiig sulnnisiionson the other ; ourc.ildren sea 
this, an<l lesrn to imitiite it * » ♦ nevianniustbea 
jiTodi^y whocart retain his manners and morals undepraved 
by siicli circumstances. And wilh what execration thuuld 
X\u: Statesman be loaded, who, permitting one half the 
citi/eii-i thus to trample on the rii,'lits of the other, trans- 
forms tho^e into despots, and llie>e into enemies, destroys 
the morals of the one pirl, sind the amor patriot of the 
other! * * * With the morals of tie ptople, their in- 
dustry also is destroyed " 

Next comes the Philosophic Authority ; and 
here the language which I quote may be less fa- 
miliar, but it is hardly less commanding. Among 
names of such weight, I shall not discriminate, 
but shall simply lollow the order of time in 
which they appeared. First is John Locke, 
the great author of the English System of In- 
tellectual Philosophy, who, though once unhap- 
pily conceding indulgence to American Slave- 
ry, in another place describes it, in words 
which every Slave-master should know, as — 

"The state of war conunued between a lawful con- 
queror and his captive. ♦ * * So opposite to the gen- 
erous temper and couraqe of our nation, that ''lis hardly 
tj he conceived that an Englishman, much less a gemlb- 
man, should plead Jor ii." 

Then comes Adam Smith, the founder of the 
science of Political Economy, who, in his work 
on Morals, thus utters himself: 

" There is not a negro from the coast of Africa who does 
not possess a degree of magnanimity which the soul of 
hi; sordid master is too of en scarce capable tf conceiv- 
ing. Fortune never exerted more cruelly her empire over 
mankind, than when she subjected these iiati'nis of he- 
roes to the refuse of gaols of Europe, to wretches who 
po>ses< the virtues neither of the countries which they 
coine from, nor of those which they go to, and whose levily, 
briitality, and baseness, so justly expose them to thecontempt 
of the vanqiiiihed.''' — Theory of JMoral Sentiments, Pari V, 
chapter 2. 

This judgment, pronounced just a century 
ago, was repelled by the Slave-masters of Vir- 
ginia, in a feeble publication which attestij at 
least their own consciousness that they were 
the criminals arraigned by the distinguished 
philosopher. This was soon followed by the 
testimony of the great English moralist, Dr. 
Johnson, who, in a letter to a friend, thus shows 
his opinion of Slave-masters : 

" To omit for a year, o? for a day, the most efficacious 
method of advancing Christianity, in compliance with 
any purposes, that terminate on this side of the grave, is a 
crime of which I know not that the world has liad a:i ex- 
ample, except in the practice of (Ae7,7a»i(£7»- cf Ametica. 
a race of mortals whom, 1 suppose, no other jnan wishes to 
resemble.'' — Letter to William I)ru}nmond,Vith August, 1«C6. 
(BosweWs Life of Johnson, by Croker.) 

With such authorities, American and Philo- 
sophic, I need not hesitate in this ungracious 
task ; but Truth, which is mightier than Mason 
and Jefferson, than John Locke, Adam Smith, 
and Samuel Johnson, marshals the evidence iu 
unbroken succession. 

Proceeding with this argument, which broad- 
ens as we advance, we shall see Slave-masters 



14 



(1) in the Law of Slavery, (2) in their relations 
with Skves, (3) in their relations with each 
other and with Society, and (4) in that uncon- 
ciousness which renders them insensible to 
their true character. 

(1.) As in considering the Character of Sla- 
very, so in considering the Character of Slave- 
masters, we must begin with the Law of Sla- 
very, which, as their work, testifies against 
them. In the face of such an unutterable 
abomination, where impiety, cruelty, brutality, 
and robbery, all strive for mastery, it is in vain 
to assert the humanity or refinement of its 
authors. Full well I know that the conscience 
which speaks so powerfully to the solitary soul, 
is often silent in the corporate body, and that, 
in all ages and countries, numbers, when gath- 
ered in communities and States, have sanction- 
ed acts from which the individual revolts. And 
yet I know no surer way of judging a people 
than by its laws, especially where those laws 
have been long continued and openly main- 
tained. 

Whatever may be the eminence of individual 
virtue — and I would not so far disparage hu- 
manity as to suppose that the offences which 
may be general where Slavery exists are uni- 
versal — it is not reasonable or logical to infer 
that the masses of Slave-masters are better than 
the Law of Slavery. And since the Law itself 
degrades the slave to be a chattel, and submits 
him to their irresponsible control, with power 
to bind and to scourge; to usurp the fruits 
of another's labor ; to pollute the body ; and 
to outrage all ties of family, making mar- 
riage impossible — we must conclude that such 
enormities are sanctioned by Slave-masters, 
while the exclusion of testimony, and prohibi- 
tion of instruction — by supplementary law — 
complete the evidence of their complicity. And 
this conclusion must stand unquestioned just 
80 long as the Law of Slavery exists unrepealed. 
Cease, then, to blazon the humanity of Slave- 
masters. Tell me not of the lenity with which 
this cruel Code is tempered to its unhappy sub- 
jects. Tell me not of the sympathy which 
overflows from the mansion of the master to the 
cabin of the slave. In vain you assert such 
'' happy accidents." In vain you show that there 
are individuals who do not exert the wicked- 
ness of the law. The Barbarism still endures, 
Bolemnly, legislatively, judicially attested in the 
very Slave Code, and proclaims constantly the 
character of its authors. And this is the first 
article in the evidence against Slave-masters. 

(2.) I am next brought to Slave-masters in 
ineir relations with Slaves ; and here the argu- 
ment is founded upon facts, and upon presump- 
tions irresistible as facts. Only lately has in- 
quiry burst into that gloomy world of bondage., 
and disclosed its secrets. But enough is already 
known to arouse the indignant condemnation 
of mankind. For instance, here is a simple ad- 



vertisement — one of thousands — from the (xtor- 

gia Messenger : 

" Run Away — My man Fountain ; has holes in his ears, a 
scar on the right side ol'his forehead ; has been shot in tiio j 
hind parts of his legs ; is marked on his back with the whip. ! 
Apply to Robert Beasley, Macon, Ga." 

Holes in the ears ; scar on the forehead ; 
shot in the legs, and marks of the lash on the 
back I Such are the tokens by which a Slave- 
master proposes to identify his slave. 

And here is another advertisement, revealing 
Slave-masters in a different light. It is from 
•the National Intelligencer, published at the 
Capital ; and I confess the pain with which I 
cite such an indecency in a journal of such 
respectability. Of course, it appeared without 
the knowledge of the editors ; but it is none 
the less an illustrative example : 

" For Sale. — An accomplished and handsome lady's maid. 
She is just sixteen years of age ; was raised in a genteel fam- 
ily in Maryland; and is now proposed to be sold, not for any 
faultjbut simply because the owner has no further use for 
hor. A note ilirected to C. D., Gadsby's Hutol, will receivo 
prompt attention." 

A sated libertine, in a land where vice is le- 
galized, could not expose his victim with apter 
words. 

These two instances will illustrate a class. 

In the recent work of Mr. Olmstead, a close 
observer and traveller in the Slave States 
which abounds in pictures of Slavery, expressed 
with caution, and evident regard to truth, will 
be found still another, where a Slave-master 
thus frankly confesses his experience : 

''I can tell you how you can break a niiiRer of running 
away, certain," said the Siave-iiiasier " 'I'tiere wis an ' 
old fellow I used to know in Georgia, thai always cured 
his so. If a nigger ran away, when lie caught him, he 
wou'd bind his knee over a log. and lasen him so he 
couldn't stir; then he'd lake a pair of pincers, and pull 
one of his toe-nails out by the roois; and tell him that if 
he ever run away again, he would pull oat two of thero; 
and if he run away again after that, he told him ht 'dpull 
out four of them, and so on, douhling each time. He 
never had to do it more than twice; it always cured 
them." — Oimstead's Ttj:as Journey, 105 

Like this story, which is from the lips of a 
Slave-master, is another, where the master, 
angry because his slave had sought to rcain 
his God-given liberty, deliberately cut the tea- 
dons of his heel, thus horribly maiminor him for 
life! 

It is in vain that these instances are denied. 
Their accumulating number, authenticated in 
every possible manner, by the press, by a cloud 
of witnesses, and by the confession of Slave- 
masters, stares us constantly in the face. 

And here we are brought again to the slave 
code, under the shelter of which these and 
worse things may be done, with .complete im- 
punity. Listen to the remarkable words of 
Chief Justice RufSn, of North Carolina, who, 
in a solemn decision, thus portrays, affirms, 
and deplores, this terrible latitude : 

"The obedience of the slave," he says, "is the conse- 
quence only of «nco»tirpW«d a«/Aon'(i/ cfer t/ie ftoiiy. * * ♦ 
The power of the mn-ster mwt be absolute to render iks sul>~ 
mhsioii of the s ave per/ra I must freely confess my senM 
of the harshness of this proposition. I feel it as deeply 
an aiiv man ca i. A^nd, as a principle of moral ri^ht, 
every person in his rearement must repudiate it. But, in 
the actual condition of things, it must bo so. There is no 



15 



remedy. This diseijiUne behngs to the ztaf, of Slavery. 
It is inherent iiMhe relation of masler nnd slave "—T/ic 
Slate V. Mann, 2 Devereaux H , 202. 

And this saiae terrible latitude has been 
thus expounded in a recent judicial decision 
of Virginia : 

'•It is the policy oC the law in respect to the relation of 
master and slave, a tl for the sake of securing proper 
subordination onil obedience on the part of the slave, to 
protect the inasur from prosecution, even if. the whipping 
and punishmer.t te malicious, cruel, and excessive.^'— San- 
tlur V. Cwdt, 7 Grattan, C73. 

Can Barbarism farther go ? Here is an ir- 
responsible power, rendered more irresponsible 
still by the seclusion of the plantation, and ab- 
solutely fortified by the supplementary law ex- 
cluding the testimony of slaves. That under 
its shelter enormities should occur, stranger 
than fiction, too terrible for imagination, and 
surpassing any individual experience, is simply 
according to the course of nature and the 
course of history. The visitation of the ab- 
beys in England disclosed vice and disorder 
in startling forms, cloaked by the irrespon- 
sible privacy of monastic life. A similar 
visitation of plantations, would disclose more 
fearful results, cloaked by the irresponsible 
privacy of Slavery. Every SlaTe-master on 
his plantation is a Bashaw, with all the pre- 
rogatives of a Turk. According to Hobbes, he 
is *'a petty kiug." This is true; and every 
plantation is of itself a petty kingdom, with 
more than the immunities of an abbey. Six 
thousand skulls of infants are said to have been 
taken from a single fish-pond near a nunnery, 
to the dismay of Pope Gregory. Under the 
law of Slavery, infants the otfepring of masters 
'• who dream of Freedom in a slave's embrace," 
are not thrown into a fish-pond, but something 
worse is done. They are sold. But this is only 
a single glimpse. Slavery, in its recesses, is 
another Bastile, whose horrors v/ill never be 
known until it all is razed to the ground ; it is 
the dismal castle of Giant Despair, which, 
v/hen captured by the Pilgrims, excited their 
v;onder, as they saw " the dead bodies that lay 
here and there in the castle-yard, and how full 
of dead men's bones the dungeon was." The 
recorded horrors of Slavery seem to be infinite, 
and each day, by the escape of its victims, 
they are still further attested, while the door of 
the vast prison-house is left ajar. But, alas ! 
unless the examples of history and the lessons 
of political wisdom are alike delusive, its unre- 
corded horrors must assume a form of yet more 
fearful dimensions, as we try to contemplate 
them. Bafiling all attempts at description, 
they sink into that chapter of Sir Thomas 
Browne, entitled, Of some Relations ichose 
Truth ioe fear ; and among kindred things 
whereof, according to this eloquent philoso- 
pher, there remains no register but that of 
bell. 

If this picture of the relations of Slave mas- 
ters with their slaves could receive any further 
darkness, it would be by introducing the fig- 
ures of the congenial agents through which 



the Barbarism is maintained ; the Slave-over- 
seer, the Slave-breeder, and the Slave-hunter, 
each without a peer except in his brother, and 
the whole constituting the triumvirate of Sla- 
very, in whom its essential brutality, vulgarity, 
and grossness, are all embodied. There is the 
Slave-overseer, with his bloody lash, fitly de- 
scribed in his Life of Patrick Henry by Mr. 
Wirt, who, born in Virginia, knew the class, aa 
" last and lowest, most abject, degraded, un- 
principled," and his hands wield at will tha 
irresponsible power. There is the Slave-breed- 
er, who assumes a higher character, and even 
enters legislative halls, where, in unconscious 
insensibility, he shocks civilization by denying, 
like Mr. Gholson, of Virginia, any alleged dis- 
tinction between the "female slave" and "the 
brood mare," by openly asserting the necessary 
respite from work during the gestation of the 
female slave as the ground of property in her 
offspring, and by proclaiming that in this " vi- 
gintial " crop of human flesh consists much of 
the wealth of his State, while another Virgin- 
ian, not yet hardened to this debasing trade, 
whose annual sacrifice reaches 25,000 humaa 
souls, confesses the indignation and shame with 
which he beholds his State " converted into one 
grand menagerie, where men are reared for the 
market, like oxen for the shambles." And 
lastly there is the Slave-hunter, with the bloed- 
hound as his brutal symbol, who pursues slaves, 
as the hunter pursues game, and does not hes- 
tate in the public prints to advertise his Bar- 
barism thus : 

"CLOOD-HOUND?.— I have TWO of the FINKST 
DOGS for CATCHING NEGROES in the Southwest. 
Thpy can take the trail TWELVE HOURS afier the 
NEGRO HAS PASSED, and catch him with ease. I live 
four miles southwest of Bolivar, on the road leading from 
h'olivar to Whitcsville. I am ready at all timt's lo'catch 
runaway negroes. DAVID TURNER. 

'• iViarch 2, 1853." — West Tennessee Democrat. 

The blood-hound was known in early Scottish 
history ; it was once vindictively put upon the 
trail of Robert Bruce, and in barbarous days, 
by a cruel license of war, it was directed against 
the marauders of the Scottish border; but 
more than a century has passed since the last 
survivor of the race, kept as a curiosity, was 
fed on meal in Ettrick Forest.* The blood- 
hound was employed by Spain, against the na- 
tives of this continent, and the eloquence of 
Chatham never touched a truer chord than when, 
gathering force from the condemnation of this 
brutality, he poured his thunder upon the kin- 
dred brutality of the scalping-knife, adopted 
as an instrument of war by a nation profess- 
ing civilization. Tardily introduced into our 
Republic, some time after the Missouri Compro- 
mise, when Slavery became a political passion 
and Slave-masters began to throw aside all dis- 
guise, the blood-hound has become the repre- 
sentative of our Barbarism in one of its worst 
forms, when engaged in the pursuit of a fellow- 
man who is asserting his inborn title to himself; 

* Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel— iVirfe*, Ginto F. 



16 



and this brute is, indeed, typical of the whole 
brutal leash of Slave-hunters, who, whether at 
home on Slave-soil, under the nanae of Slave- 
catchers, and kidnappers, or at a distance, 
under politer names, insult Human Nature by 
the enforcement of this Barbarism. 

(3.) From this dreary picture of Slave-mas- 
ters with their slaves and their triumvirate of 
vulgar instruments, I pass to another more 
dreary still, and more completely exposing the 
influence of Slavery ; I mean the relations of 
Slave-masters unth each other ^ also with Society 
and Government, or, in other words, the Char- 
acter of Slave-masters, as displayed in the gen- 
eral relations of life. And here I need your 
indulgence. Not in triumph or in taunt do I 
approach this branch of the subject. Yielding 
only to the irresistible exigency of the discus- 
sion and in direct response to the assumptions 
on this floor, especially by the Senator from 
Virginia, [Mr. Mason,] I shall proceed. If I 
touch Slavery to the quick, and enable Slave- 
masters to see themselves as others see them, I 
shall do nothing beyond the strictest line of 
duty in this debate. 

One of the choicest passages of the master 
Italian poet, Dante, is where a scene of tran- 
scendent virtue is described as sculptured in 
" visible speech " on the long gallery which led 
to the Heavenly Gate. The poet felt the in- 
spiration of the scene, and placed it on the 
way side, where it could charm and encour- 
age. This was natural. Nobody can look upon 
virtue and justice, if it be only in images 
and pictures, without feeling a kindred senti- 
ment. Nobody can be surrounded by vice 
and wrong, by violence and brutality, if it be, 
only in images and pictures, without coming 
under their degrading influence. Nobody can 
live with the one without advantage ; nobody 
can live with the other without loss. Who 
could pass his life in the secret chamber where 
are gathered the impure relics of Pompeii, 
without becoming indifferent to loathsome 
things ? But if these loathsome things are not 
merely sculptured and painted, if they exist in 
living reality — if they enact their hideous capers 
in life, aS in the criminal pretensions of Sla- 
very — while the lash plays and the blood 
spirts — while women are whipped and children 
are sold — while marriage is polluted and an- 
nulled — while the parental tie is rudely torn — 
while honest gains are filched or robbed — while 
the Boul itself is shut down in all the darkness 
of ignorance, and while God himself is defied 
in the pretension that man can have property 
in his fellow-man ; if all these things are pres- 
ent, not merely in images and pictures, but in 
reality, their influence on character must be 
incalculable. 

It is according to irresistible law that men 
are fashioned by what is about them, wheth- 
er climate, scenery, life, or institutions. Like 
produces like, and this ancient proverb is 



verified always. Look at the miner, delv- 
ing low down in darkness, and the monn- 
taineer, ranging on airy heights, and you 
will see a contrast in character, and even in 
personal form. The difference between a 
coward and a hero may be traced in the at' 
mosphere which each has breathed ; and how 
much more in the institutions under which 
each has been reared. If institutions generous 
and just ripen souls also generous and just, 
then other institutions must exhibit their influ- 
ence also. Violence, brutality, injustice, bar- 
barism, must be reproduced in the lives of all 
who live within their fatal sphere. The meat 
that is eaten by man enters into and become" 
a part of his body ; the madder which is eaten 
by a dog changes his bones to red ; and the 
Slavery on which men live, in all its fivefold ] 
foulness, must become a part of themselves, i 
discoloring their very souls, blotting their char- \ 
acters, and breaking forth in moral leprosy. /< 
This language is strong; but the evidence is 
even stronger. Some there may be of happy 
natures — like honorable Senators — who can 
thus feed and not be harmed. Mithridates fed 
on poison, and lived ; and it may be that there 
is a moral Mithridates, who can swallow with- 
out bane the poison of Slavery. 

Instead of "ennobling" ihe master, nothing 
can be clearer than that the slave drags li s 
master down, and this process begins in child- 
hood, and is continued through life. Livifig\| 
much in association with his slave, the master j 
finds nothing to remind him of his own defi- ' 
ciencies, to prompt his ambition or excite his '„ 
shame. Without these provocations to virtue, 
and without an elevating example, he naturally 
shares the Barbarism of the society which he 
keeps. Thus the very inieriority v/hich the 
Slave-master attributes to the African race ex- 
plains the melancholy condition of the commu- 
nities in which his degradation is declared by 
law. 

A single false principle or vicious thought 
may degrade a character otherwise blameless; 
and this is practically true of the Slave-master. 
Accustomed to regard men as property, his 
sensibilities are blunted and his moral sense is 
obscured. He consents to acts from which 
Civilization recoils. The early Church sold its 
property, and even its sacred vessels, for the 
redemption of captives. This was done on a 
remarkable occasion by St. Ambrose, and suc- 
cessive canons confirmed the example. But 
in the Slave States this is all reversed. Slaves 
there are often sold as the property of the 
Church, and an instance is related of a slave 
sold in South Carolina in order to buy plate 
for the communion table. Who can calculate 
the efiFect of such an example ? 

Surrounded by pernicious influences of all 
kinds, both positive and negative, the first 
making him do that which he ought not to do, 
and the second making him leave undone that 
which he ought to have done — through child- 



17 



hood, youth, and manhood, even unto ase — un- 
' able while at home to escape these influences, 
overshadowed constantly by the portentous Bar- 
barism about him, the Slave-master natural- 
ly adopts the bludgeon, the revolver, and the 
bowie-knife. Through these he governs his 
plantation, and secretly armed with these he 
enters the world. These are his congenial com- 
panions. To wear these is his pride ; to use 
them becomes a passion, almost a necessity. 
Nothing contributes to violence so much as the 
wearing of the instruments of violence, thus 
having them always at hand to obey the law- 
less instincts of the individual. A barbarous 
standard is established ; a duel is not dishonor- 
able ; a contest peculiar to our Slave-masters, 
known as a " street fight," is not shameful ; 
and modern imitators of Cain have a mark set 
upon them, not for reproach and condemnation, 
but for compliment and approval. I wish to 
keep within bounds ; but unanswerable facts, 
accumulating in fearful quantities, attest that 
the social system, so much vaunted by honora- 
ble Senators, and Y*'hich we are now asked to 
sanction and to extend, takes its character from 
this spirit, and with professions of Christianity 
on the lips, becomes Cain like. And this is 
aggravated by the prevailing ignorance in the 
Slave States, where one in twelve of the adult 
white population is unable to read and write. 

Tha boldest tbcy who least partake the hght, 
As giime cocks iu the Jark ara trained to fight. 

Of course there are exceptions, which we all 
gladly recognise, but it is this spirit which pre- 
dominates and gives the social law. And here 
mark an important difference. Elsewhere vio- 
lence shows itself in svite of law, whether social 
nr statute ; in the Slave States it is because of 
law both social and statute. Elsewhere it is 
pursued and condemned ; in the Slave States it 
is adopted and honored. Elsewhere it is hunted 
as a crime; in the Slave States it takes its 
place among the honorable graces of society. 

Let not these harsh statements stand on my 
authority. Listen to the testimony of two Gov- 
ernors of Slave States in their messages to the 
Legislatures : 

" Wo long to see the clay," said the Governor of Kentucky 
in 18o", " wlieu the law will assert its majesty, and stop the 
wanton destruction ol life which almost daily occurs within 
the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth. Men slaughter each 
oilier with almost perfect impunity. A species of common law 
has grown up in Kentucky, which, were it written down, 
would, iu all civilized countries, cause it to be rechristened, 
iu derision, the land of hltxid." 

Such was the ofBcial confession of a Slave- 
master Governor of Kentucky. And here is 
the official confession made the same year by 
the Slave-master Governor or Alabama: 

" Wc hear of homicides in different parts of the State coo- 
tinually, and yet have few convictions, and still fewer exe- 
cutions ! Why do we hear of itabbiTigs and shootings almost 
daily in somo part or other of our State ? " 

A land of blood I Stabbings and shootings 
almost daily 1 Such is the official language. It 
was natural that contemporary newspapers 
should repeat what thus found utterance in 



high places. Here is a confession by a news- 
paper iu Missi-ssippi : 

" The moral atniosphcro In our Slato appears to be in a 
deleterious and sanffuinary condition. Almost every cxchango 
paper which reaches us, contains some inhuman arui reooll- 
ing case of murder or death by violence. ' ' — Grand Out/ Adver 
tiser, -I'th June, 1837. 

Here is another confession by a newspaper 
in New Orleans : 

"In view of the crimes which are daily commillwl, wc 
are led to inquire whether it is owing ^^ the itulllcioncy of 
our laws, or to the manner in which tlieso laws are admin- 
istered, that thisfrighi/ul deltige of huvian blond Jlows through 
our streets and our places of public resort." — New OrleansBee, 
•rid May, 1S38. 

And here is testimony of a different charac- 
ter: 

" No ono who has not been an integral parl^f a slave- 
holding community can have any idea of its al^OHnations. 
It is a whited sepulchre, full of dead men's bones and all uu- 
cleanucss." 

These are the words of a Southern lady, the 
daughter of the accomplished Judge Grimk6 

of South Carolina. 

A catalogue of affrays between politician.'), 
commonly known as "street fights" — I use the 
phrase which comes from the land of Slavery — 
would show that these authorities were not mis- 
taken. That famous Dutch picture, admired 
particularly by a successful engraving, and 
called the Knife-fight, presents a scene less re- 
volting than one of these. Two or more men, 
armed to the teeth, meet in the streets, at a 
court-house or a tavern, shoot at each other with 
revolvers, then gash each other with knives, 
close, and roll upon the ground, covered with dirt 
and blood, struggling and stabbing till death, 
prostration, or surrender, puts an end to the 
conflict. Each instance tells a shameful story, 
and cries out against the social system which 
can tolerate such Barbarism. A catalogue of 
duels in our country would testify again to the 
reckless disregard of life where Slavery exists, 
and would exhibit Violence flaunting in the 
garb of Honor, and prating of a barbarous 
code disowned equally by reason and religion. 
But you have already supped too full of horrors, 
and I hasten on. 

Pardon me if I stop for one moment to ex- 
hibit and denounce the Duel. I do it only be- 
cause it belongs to the brood of Slavery. An 
enlightened Civilization has long ago rejected 
this relic of Barbarism, and never has one part 
of the argument against it been put more sen- 
tentiously than by Franklin : "A duel decides 
nothing," said this patriot philosopher, " and 
the person appealing to it makes himself judge 
in his own cause, condemns the offender with- 
out a jury, and undertakes himself to be the 
executioner." To these emphatic words i 
would add two brief propositions, which, if 
practically adopted, make the Duel impossi- 
ble — first, that the acknowledgment of wrong 
with apology or explanation can never be other- 
wise than honorable ; and, secondly, that, in the 
absence of all such acknowledgment, no wrong 
can ever be repaired by a gladiatorial contest, 
where brute force, or skill, or chauce, must de- 



18 



cide the day. Iron and adamant are not 
stronger than these arguments ; nor can any 
one attempt an answer without exposing his 
feebleness. And yet Slave-masters, disregard- 
ing its irrational character — insensible to its 
folly — heedless of its impiety — and unconscious 
of its Barbarism, openly adopt the Duel as a 
regulator of manners and conduct. Two voices 
from South Carolina have been raised against 
it, and I mention them with gladness as testi- 
mony even in that land of Slavery. The first 
was Charles Cotesworm Pinckney, who in the 
early days of the Republic openly declared his 
*' abhorrence of the practice," and invoked the 
the clergy of his State " as a particular favor 
ai som(^'pnvenient early day to preach a ser- 
mon on the sin and folly of duelling." The 
other was Mr. Rhett, who on this floor openly 
declared as his reason for declining the Duel, 
" that he feared God more than man." Gen- 
erous words, for which many errors can be par- 
doned. But these voices condemn the social 
system of which the Duel is a natural product. 

Looking now at the broad surface of society 
where Slavery exists, we shall find its spirit 
actively manifest in the suppression of all free- 
dom of speech or of the press, especially with 
regard to this wrong. Nobody in the Slave 
States can speak or print against Slavery, ex- 
cept at the peril of life or liberty. St. Paul 
could call upon the people of Athens to g?ve 
up the worship of unknown gods ; he could 
liv3 in bis own hired house at Rome, and 
pre?.ch Christianity in this Heathen metropo- 
ii.2 ; but no raan can be heard against Slavery 
in Charleston or Mobile. We condemn the 
Iiiq^uisition, which subjects all within its influ- 
ence to censorship and secret judgment ; but 
this tjrauny is repeated in American Slave- 
masters. Truths as simple as the great dis- 
covery of Galileo are openly denied, and all 
who declare them are driven to recant. We 
condemn the Index Expurgatorius of the 
Roman Church ; but American Slave-masters 
have an Index on which are inscribed all the 
generous books of the age. There is one book, 
the marvel of recent literature. Uncle Tom's 
Cabin, which has been thus treated both by the 
Church and by the Slave-masters, so that it is 
honored by the same suppression at the Vati- 
can and at Charleston. 

Not to dweH on these instances, there is one 
which has a most instructive ridiculousness. 
A religious discourse of the late Dr. Channing 
oa West India Emancipation — the last effort 
of his beautiful career — was offered for sale by 
a book agent at Charleston. A prosecution by 
the South Carolina Association ensued, and 
the agent was held to bail in the sum of one 
thousand dollars. Shortly afterwards, the same 
agent received for sale a work by Dickens, 
freshly published, "American Notes;" but, 
determined not to expose himself again to the 
tyrannical Inquisition, he gave notice through 
the newspapers that tne book " would be sub- 



mitted to highly intelligent members 'of the 
South Carolina Association for inspection, and 
if the sale is approved by them, it will be for 
sale — if not, not." 

Listen also to another recent Instance, as re- 
counted in the Montgomei^j Mail, a newspaper 
of Alabama : 

" Last Saturday we devoted to the flames a large number 
of copies of Spurgeon's Sermons, and the pile was graced at 
the top with a copy of" Graves's Great Iron Wheel," which 
a Baptist friend presented for the purpose. We trust that 
the works of the greasy cockney vociferalor may receive tho 
same treatment throughout tho South. And if the Pharisai- 
cal author should ever show himself in these parts, wo trust 
that a .stout cord may speedily find its way ai'ound his elo- 
quent throat. He has proved himself a dirty, low-bre<i 
slanderer, and ought to be treated accordingly." 

And very recently we have read in the jour- 
nals, that the trustees of a College in Alabama 
have resolved that Dr. Wayland's admirable 
work _ on Moral Science "contains abolition 
doctrine of the deepest dye ; '" and they pro- 
ceeded to denounce " the said book, and 'forbid 
its further use in the Institute." 

The speeches of Wilberforce in the British 
Parliament, and especially those magnificent 
efforts of Brougham, where he exposed " tho 
wild and guilty fantasy that man can hold 
property in man," were insanely denounced by 
the British planters in the West Indies ; but 
our Slave-masters go further. Speeches de- 
livered in the Senate have been stopped .it the 
Post-oifice ; booksellers who had received them 
have been mobbed, and on at least one occa- 
sion the speeches have been solemnly pro 
ceeded against by a Grand Jury. 

All this is natural, for tyranny is condemned 
to be consequent with itself. Proclaim Slavery 
to be a permanent insfitution, instead of a 
temporary Barbarism, soon to pass away, and 
then, by the unhesitating logic of self-preserva- 
tion, all things must yield to its support. Xha 
safety of Slavery becomes the supreme law» 
And since Slavery is endangered by liberty in 
any form, therefore all liberty must be restrain 
ed. Such is the philosophy of this seeming 
paradox in a Republic. And our Slave masters 
show themselves apt in this work. Violence 
and brutality are their ready instruments, 
quickened always by the wakefulness of sus 
picioD, aad perhaps often by the restlessness o,' 
uneasy conscience. Everywhere in the Slave 
States the Lion's Mouth of Venice, where citi- 
zens were anonymously denounced, is open; 
nor are the gloomy prisons and the Bridge ot 
Sighs wanting. 

This spirit has recently shown .itself with 
such intensity and activ ty as to constitute 
what has been properly termed a reign of ter- 
ror. Northern men, unless they happen to be 
delegates to a Democratic Convention, arc ex- 
posed in their travels, whether of. business or 
health, to the operation of this system. They 
ar-e watched and dogged, as if in a land of De,?- 
potism ; they are treated r,-ith the meanner-s of 
a disgusting tyranny, and live in peril always 
of personal indignity, and often of life and 



19 



limb. Complaint has soraetimea been made of 
the wrongs to American citizens in Mexico; 
but during the last year, more outrages on 
American citizens have been perpetrated in 
the Slave States than in Mexico. Here, again, 
I have no time for details, which have been 
already presented in other quarters. But the 
instances are from all conditions of life. In 
Missouri, a Methodist clergyman, suspected of 
being an Abolitionist, was taken to prison, 
amidst threats of tar and feathers. In Arkan- 
sas, a schoolmaster was driven from the State. 
In Kentucky, a plain citizen from Indiana, on 
a visit to his friends, was threatened with death 
by the rope. lu Alabama, a simple person 
from Connecticut, peddling books, was thrust 
into prison, amidst cries of " Shoot him ! hang 
him ! " In Virginia, a Shaker, from New York, 
peddling garden seeds, was forcibly expelled 
irom the State. In Georgia, a merchant's 
clerk, Irishman by birth, who simply asked 
the settlement of a just debt, was cast into 
prison, robbed of his pocket-book, containing 
nearly $100, and barely escaped with his life. 
In South Carolina, a stone-cutter, Irishman by 
birth, was stripped naked, aud then, amidst 
cries of "Brand him ! " "Burn him!" "Spike 
him to death I " scourged so that blood came 
at every stroke, while tar was poured upon his 
lacerated flesh. These atrocities, calculated, 
according to the words of a poet of subtle 
beauty, to " make a holiday in hell," were all 
ordained, by Vigilance Committees, or by that 
busiest magistrate, Judge Lynch, inspired by 
the demon of Slavery. 

'• He let them loo^e, and cried, Halloo I 
How shall we yield him honor due? •' 

In perfect shamelessness, and as if to blazon 
this fiendish spirit, we have had, this winter, in 
a leading newspaper of Virginia, an article, 
proposing to give twenty-five dollars each for 
the heads of citizens, mostly members of Con- 
gress, known to be against Slavery, and 
$50,000 for the head of William H. Seward. 
And in still another paper of Virginia, we find 
a proposition to raise $10,000 to be given for 
the kidnapping and delivery of a venerable cit- 
izen, Joshua R. Giddings, at Richmond, " or 
$5,000 for the production of his head." These 
are fresh instances, but they are not alone. At 
a meeting of Slave-masters in Georgia, in 1835, 
the Governor was recommended to issue a 
proclamation, offering $5,000 as a reward for 
the apprehension of either often persons named 
in the resolution, citizens of New York and 
Massachusetts, and one a subject of Great 
Britain — not one of whom it was pretended 
had ever set foot on the soil of Georgia. The 
Milledgeville Federal Union, a newspaper of 
Georgia, in 1836, contained an offer of $10,000 
for kidnapping a clergyman residing in the 
city of New York. A Committee of Vigilance 
of Louisiana, in 1835, offered, in the Louisiana 
Jouimal, $50,000 to any person who would de- 
liver into their hands Arthur Tappan, a mer- 



chant of New York; and, during the same year, 
a public meeting in Alabama, with a person 
entitled "Honorable" in the chair, offered a 
similar reward ot $50,000 for the apprehension 
of the same Arthur Tappan, and of La Roy 
Sunderland, a clergyman of the Methodist 
church at New York. >- 

These manifestations are not without proto- 
type in the history of the Anti-Slavery cause in 
other countries. From the beginning. Slave- 
masters have encountered argument by brutal- 
ity and violence. If we go back to the earliest 
of Abolitionists, the wonderful Portuguese 
preacher, Vieyra, we shall find that his match- 
less eloquence and unquestioned piety did not 
save him from indignity. After a sermon ex- 
posing Slavery in Brazil, he was seized and 
imprisoned, while one of the principal Slave- 
masters asked him, in mockery, where were all 
his learning and all his genius now, if they 
could not deliver him in this extremity? He 
was of the Catholic church. But the spirit of 
Slavery is the same in all churches. A re- 
nowned Quaker minister of the last centu- 
ry, Thomas Chalkley, while on a visit at Bar- 
bados, having simply recommended charity to 
the slaves, without presuming to breathe a 
word against Slavery itself, was first met by 
disturbance in the meeting, and afterwards, on 
the highway, and in open day, was fired at by 
one of the exasperated planters, with " a fowl- 
ing-piece loaded with small shot, ten of which 
made marks, and several drew blood." Even 
in England, while the slave trade was under 
discussion, the same spirit appeared. Wilber- 
force, who represented the cause of Abolition 
in Parliament, was threatened with personal 
violence ; Clarkson, who represented the same 
cause before the people, was assaulted by the 
infuriate Slave-traders, and narrowly escaped 
being hustled into the dock ; and Roscoe, the 
accomplished historian, on his return to Liver- 
pool from his seat in Parliament, where he had 
signalized himself as an opponent of the slave 
trade, was met at the entrance of the town by 
a savage mob, composed of persons interested 
in this traffic, armed with knives and bludgeons, 
the distinctive arguments aud companions of 
Pro Slavery partisans. 

And even in the Free States the partisans of 
Slavery have from the beginning acted under 
the inspiration of violence. The demon of 
Slavery has entered into them, and under its 
influence they have behaved like Slave-masters. 
Public meetings for the discussion of Slavery 
have been interrupted ; public halls dedicated 
to its discussion have been destroyed or burned 
to the ground. In all our populous cities the 
great rights of speech and of the press have 
been assailed precisely as in the Slave States. 
In Boston, Garrison, pleading for the Slave, was 
dragged through the streets with a iialter about 
his neck, and in Illinois Lovejoy, also plead- 
ing for the Slave, was ferociously murdered. 
The former yet lives to speak for himself, while 



20 



the latter lives in his eloquent brother, the 
Representative from Illinois in the other House. 
Thus does Slavery show its natural influence 
even at a distance. 

Nor in the Slave States is this spirit confined 
to the outbreaks of mere lawlessness. Too 
strong for restraint, it finds no limitations ex- 
cept in its own barbarous will. The Govern- 
ment becomes its tool, and in official acts does 
its bidding. Here again the instances are nu- 
merous. I might dwell on the degradation of 
the Post Office, when its olficial head consented 
that, for the sake of Slavery, the mails them- 
selves should be rifled. I might dwell also on 
the cruel persecution of Free Persons of color 
who in the Slave States generally, and even 
here in the District of Columbia, are not allowed 
to testify where a white man is in question, and 
who now in several States are menaced by 
legislative act with the alternative of expulsion 
from their homes or of reduction to Slavery. 
But I pass at once to two illustrative transac- 
tions, which, as a son of Massachusetts, I can- 
not forget. 

1. The first relates to a citizen, of purest life 
and perfect integrity, whose name is destined 
to fill a conspicuous place in the history of Free- 
dom, William Lloyd Garrison. Born in Massa- 
chusetts, bred to the same profession with Ben- 
jamin Franklin, and like his great predecessor 
becoming an editor, he saw with instinctive 
clearness the wrong of Slavery, and at a period 
when the ardors of the Missouri Question had 
given way to indifference throughout the North, 
he stepped forward to denounce it. The jail at 
Baltimore, where he then resided, was his earliest 
reward. Afterwards, January 1st, 1831, he pub- 
lished the first number of the Liberator, inscri- 
bing for his motto an utterance of Christian phi- 
lanthropy, " My country is the world, my coun- 
trymen are all mankind," and declaring in the 
face of surrounding apathy, " I am in earnest. I 
■will notequivocate, I will notretreata single inch, 
and I will be heard."' In this sublime spirit he 
commenced his labors for the Slave, proposing 
no intervention by Congress in the States, and 
on well-considered principle avoiding all appeals 
to the bondmen themselves. Such was his sim- 
ple and thoroughly constitutional position, when, 
before the expiration of the first year, the Legis- 
lature of Georgia, by solemn act, a copy of which 
I have now before me, " approved " by Wil- 
son Lumpkin, Governor, appropriated $5,000 
"to be paid to any person who shall arrest, 
bring to trial, and prosecute to conviction under 
the laws of this State, the editor or publisher 
of a certain paper called the Liberator, pub- 
lished at the town of Boston and State of Mas- 
sachusetts." Tliis infamous legislative act 
touching a person absolutely beyond the juris- 
diction of Georgia, and in no way amenable 
to its laws, constituted a plain bribe to the 
gangs of kidnappers engendered by Slavery. 
With this barefaced defiance of justice and de- 
cency Slave-masters inaugurated the system of 



violence by which they have sought to crush 
every voice that has been raised against Sla- 
very. 

2. Here is another illustration of a different 
character. Free persons of color, citizens of 
Massachusetts, and, according to the institu- 
tions of this Commonwealth, entitled to equal 
privileges with other citizens, being in service 
as mariners, and touching at the port of Charles- 
ton, in South Carolina, have been seized, and 
with no allegation against them, except of en- 
tering this port in the- discharge of their right- 
ful business, have been cast into prison, and 
there detained during the delay of the vessel. 
This is by virtue of a statute of South Caiolina, 
passed in 1823, which further declares, that in 
the failure of the captain to pay the expenses, 
these freemen " shall be seized and taken as 
absolute slaves,"" one moiety of the proceeds of 
their sale to belong to the Sheriff. Against all 
remonstrance — against the official opinion of 
Mr. Wirt, as Attorney General of the United 
States, declaring it unconstitutional — against 
the solemn judgment of Mr. Justice Johnson, 
of the Supreme Court of the United States, 
himself a Slave-master and citizen of South 
Carolina, also pronouncing it unconstitutional — 
this statute, which is an obvious injury to North- 
ern ship-owners, as it is an outrage to the 
mariners whom it seizes, has been upheld to 
this day by Soitth Carolina. 

But this is not all. Massachusetts, in order 
to obtain for her citizens that protection which 
was denied, and especially to save them from 
the dread penalty of being sold into Siaver}', 
appointed a citizen of South Carolina to act aa 
her agent for this purpose, and to bring suit; 
in the Circuit Court of the United States it 
order to try the constitutionality of this preten- 
sion. Owing to the sensibility of the people ir 
that State, this agent declined to render thi? 
simple service, Massachusetts next selecte(/ 
one of her own sons, a venerable citizen, whs 
had already served with honor in the othei 
House of Congress, and who was of admitted 
eminence as a lawyer, the Hon. Samuel Hoar, 
of Concord, to visit Charleston, and to do what 
the agent first appointed had shrunk from doing. 
This excellent gentleman, beloved by all who 
knew him, gentle in manners as he was firm in 
character, and with a countenance that was in 
itself a letter of recommendation, arrived at 
Charleston, accompanied only by his daughter. 
Straightway all South Carolina was convulsed. 
According to a story in Boswell's Johnson, all 
the inhabitants at St. Kilda, a remote island of 
the Hebrides, on the approach of a stranger, 
" catch cold ; " but in South Carolina it is a 
fever that they *• catch." The Governor at 
the time, who was none other than one of her 
present Senators, [Mr. Hammoxd,] made his ar- 
rival the subject of a special message to the 
Legislature, which I now have before me ; the 
Legislature all " caught" the fever, and swiftly 
adopted resolutions calling upon "his Excel* 



21 



leiicy the Governor to expel from its territory 
the said airent, after due notice to depart," and 
promising " to sustain the Executive authority 
in any measures it may adopt for the purposes 
aforesaid." 

Meanwhile the fever rajred in Charleston. 

♦. The agent of Massachusetts \va3 first accosted 
in the street by a person unknown to him, who, 
flourishing a bludgeon in his hand — the blud- 
geon always shows itself where Slavery is in 
question — cried out, " you had better be travel- 
ling, and the sorner the better for you, I can 
tell you ; if you stay hero until to-morrow morn- 
ing, you will feel something you will not like, 
I'm thinking." Next came threats of an attack 
during the following night on the Uotel in 
which he was lodged ; tlien a request from the 
landlord that he should quit, in order to pre- 
serve the Hotel itself from the impending dan- 
ger of an infuriate mob ; then a committee of 
Slave masters, who politely proposed to con- 
duct him to the boat. Thus arrested in his 
simple errand of good will, this venerable pub- 
lic servant, whose appearance alonr — like that 
of the ■■ grave and pious man " mentioned by 
Virgil — would have softened any mob not in- 

' spired by Slavery, yielded to the ejectment pro- 
posed— precisely as the prisoner yields to the 
ofEcers of the law — and left Charleston, while 
a person in the crowd was heard to offer him- 
self as "the leader of a tar-and-feather gang 
to be called into the service of the city on the 
occasion." Nor is this all? The Legislature a 
second time " caught" the fever, and, yielding to 
its influence, passed another statute, forbidding 
under severe penahies any person within the 
State from accepting a commission to befriend 
these colored mariners, and under penalties 
severer still, extending even to imprisonment 
for life, prohibiting any person " on bis own 
behalf or by virtue of any authority from any 
State " to come within South Carolina for this 
purpose ; and then, to complete its work, the 
Legislature took away the writ of habeas corpus 
from all such mariners. 

Such is a simple narrative founded on au- 
thentic documents. I do not adduce it now 
for criticism, but simply to enroll it in all its 
•stages — beginning with the earliest pretension 
of South Carolina, continuing in violence, and 
ending in yet other pretensions — among the 
special instances where the Barbarism of Slave- 
ry stands confessed even in o&icial conduct. 
And yet this transaction, which may well give to 
South Carolina the character of a shore " where 
shipwrecked mariners dread to land," has been 
openly vindicated in all its details from begin- 
ning to end by both the Senators from that 
State, while one of them, [Mr. Hammond,] in 
the same breath, has borne his testimony from 
personal knowledge to the character of the 
public agent thus maltreated, saying, " he was a 
pleasant, kind, old gentleman, and 1 had a sort 
of friendship for him during the short time 1 
sat near him in Congress." 



Thus, sir, whether we look at individuals or 
at the community where Slavery exists, at law- 
less outbreaks or at official conduct, Slave- 
masters are always the same. Enough, you 
will say, has been said. Yes ; enough to ex- 
pose Slavery, but not enough for Truth. The 
most instructive and most grievous part still 
remains. It is the exhibition of Slavcma'iters 
in Congressional history. Ui' course, the repre- 
sentative reflects the character as well as Jie po- 
litical opinions of the constituents whose will it is 
his boast to obey. It follows that the passions 
and habits of Slave-masters are naturally rep- 
resented in Congress — chastened to a certain 
extent, perhaps, by the requirements of Par- 
liamentary Law, but breaking out in fearful 
examples. And here, again, facts shall speak, 
as nothing else can. 

In proceeding with this duty, to which, as 
you will perceive, I am impelled by the posi- 
tive requirements of this debate, I crave the 
indulgence of the Senate, while, avoiding all 
allusions to private lite or private character, 
and touching simply what is of record, and 
already '' enrolled in the Capitol," I present a 
few only of many instances, which, especially 
during these latter days, since Slavery has 
become paramount, have take-u their place in 
our national history. 

Here is an instance. On the 15th February, 
1837, R. M. Whitney was arraigned before the 
House of Representatives for contempt, in re- 
fusing to attend, when required, before a Com- 
mittee of investigation into the administration 
of the Executive office. His excuse was, that 
he could not attend without exposing himself 
thereby to outrage and violence in the commit- 
tee room ; and on examination at the bar of 
the House, Mr. Fairfield, a member of the 
Committee, afterwards a member of this bodv, 
and Governor of Maine, testified to the actual 
facts. It appeared that Mr. Peyton, a Slave- 
master from Tennessee, and a member of the 
Committee, regarding a certain answer in 
writing by Mr. Whitney to an interrogatory 
propounded by him as offensive, broke out 
in these words : " Mr. Chairman, I wish you to 
inform this witness, that he is not to insult me 
in his answers ; if he does, God damn him ! I 
will take his life on the spot! " The witness, 
rising, claimed the protection of the Commit- 
tee; on which Mr. Peyton exclaimed: "God 
damn you, you shan't speak ; you shan't say 
one word while you are in this room ; if you 
do, I will put you to death." Mr. Wise, an- 
other Slave-master from Virginia, Chairman 
of the Committee, and lattt-rly Governor of 
Virginia, then intervened, saying, "Yes, this 
damned insolence is insufferable." Soon after, 
Mr. Peyton, observing that the witness was 
looking at him, cried out, "Damn him. iiis 
eyes are on me — God damn him, he is looking 
at me — he shan't do it — damn him, he shan't 
look at me." 

These things, and much more, disclosed by 



22 



Mr. Fairfield in reply to interrogatories in the 
House, were confirmed by other witnesses, and 
Mr. Wise himself in a speech made the admis- 
sion that he was armed with deadly weapons, 
saying, " I watched the motion of that right 
arm, [of the witness,] the elbow of which could 
be seen by me, and had it moved one inch, he 
had died on the spot. That was my determi- 
nation." 

All this will be found in the 13th volume of 
the Congressional Debates, with the evidence 
in detail, and- the discussion thereupon. 

Here is another instance of similar charac- 
ter, which did not occur in a Committee-room, 
but during debate in the Senate Chamber. 
While the Compromise measures were under 
discussion in 1850, on the 17th of April, 1850, 
Mr. Foote, a Slave-master from Mississippi, in 
the course of his remarks, commenced a per- 
sonal allusion to Mr. Benton. This was aggra- 
vated by the circumstance that only a few days 
previously he had made this distinguished gen- 
tleman the mark for most bitter and vindictive 
personalities. Mr. Benton rose at once from 
his seat, and, with an angry countenance, but 
without weapons of any kind in his hand, or, as 
it appeared afterward before the Committee, 
on his person, advanced in the direction of Mr. 
Fuote, when the latter, gliding backwards, 
drew from his pocket a five-chambered revolver, 
full loaded, which he cocked. Meanwhile Mr. 
Benton, at the suggestion of friends, was al- 
ready returning to his seat, when he perceived 
the pistol. Excited greatly by this deadly 
menace, he exclaimed, " I am not armed. 
I have no pistols. I disdain to carry arms. 
Stand out of the way, and let the assassin fire." 
Mr. Foote remained standing in the position 
he had taken, with his pistol in his band, cocked. 
'" Soon after," says the report of the Committee 
appointed to investigate this occurrence, " both 
Senators resumed their seats, and order was 
restored." 

All this will be found at length in the 21st 
volume of the Congressional Globe. 

Another instance, which belongs to the same 
class, is given by the Hon. William Jay, a 
writer of singular accuracy, and of the truest 
principle, who has done much to illustrate the 
history of our country. It is this : Mr. Daw- 
son, a Slave-master from Louisiana, and a 
member of the House of Representatives, went 
up to another member on the floor of the 
House, and addressed to him these words: "If 
you attempt to speak, or rise from your seat, 
sir, by G — d, I'll cut your throat." 

The duel, which at home in the Slave States 
\i "twin" with the "street fight," is also 
" twin " with these instances. It is constantly 
adopted or attempted by Slave-masters in Con- 
gress. But I shall not enter upon this cata- 
logue. I content myself with showing the 
openness with which in debate' it has been 
menaced, and without any call to order. 

Mr. Foote, the same Slave-master already 



mentioned, in debate in the Senate, 26tii of 
March, 1850, thus sought to provoke Mr. Benton, 
I take his words from the Congressional Globe 
vol. 21, p. 603: 

" There .are instances in the history of the Senator which 
might well relieve a man of honor from the obligation 
to recognise him as a fitting antagonist ; yet it is notwitb 
standing true, that, if the Senator from Missouri will deign 
to acknowledge himself responsible to the laws of hcmor, he 
shall have a very early opportunity of proving his prowes.s 
in contest with one over whom I hold perfect control ; or, if 
he feels in the least degree aggrieved at anything which has 
fallen from mc, he shall, on demanding it, have full redress 
accorded to him, according to the said laws of honor. I do 
not denounce him as a coward; such language is unfitted for 
this audience ; but if he wishes to patch up his reputation 
for courage, now greatly on the wane, he will certainly have 
an opportunity of doiru) so whenever he makes his desire known 
in the premises. At present ho is shielded by his age, his 
open disavowal of the ohligatory laws of honor, and his Sena- 
torial privileges." 

With such bitter taunts and reiterated provo- 
cations to the duel was Mr. Benton pursued ; 
but there was no call to order, nor any action 
of the Senate on this outrage. 

Hero is another instance. In debate in thg 
Senate on the 27th February, 1852, Mr. Clem- 
ens, a Slave-master of Alabama, thus directly 
attacked Mr. Rhett for undertaking to settle 
their diEFerences by argument in the Senate, 
rather than by the duel. " No man," said he, 
" with the feeling of a man in his bosom, would 
have sought redress here. He would have 
looked for it elservhere. He now comes here 
not to ask redress in the only way he should 
have sought it." 

There was no call to order. 

Here is still another. In the debate of the 
bill for the improvement of Rivers and Har- 
bors, 29th July, 1854, ( Congressional Globe, 
vol. 29, appendix, page 1163,) the Senator from 
Louisiana, [Mr. Benjamin,] who is still a mem- 
ber of this body, ardent for Slavery, while pro- 
fessing to avoid personal altercation in the 
Senate, especially " with a gentleman who pro- 
fesses the principles of non-resistance, as he un- 
derstood the Senator from New York docs," 
proceeded most earnestly to repel an imagined 
imputation on him by Mr. Seward, and wound 
up by saying : " If it came from another quar- 
ter, it would not be upon this Jioor that Islwuld 
answer it." 

And then, during the present session, the 
Senator from Mississippi, [Mr. Davis,] who 
speaks so often for Slavery, in a colloquy on 
this floor with the Senator from Vermont, [Mr. 
Collameb,] has maintained the Duel as a 
mode of settling personal differences and vin- 
dicating what is called personal honor ; as if 
personal honor did not depend absolutely upon 
what a man does, and not what is done to him. 
" A gentleman," says the Senator, " has the 
right to give an insult, if he feels himself bound 
to answefi'for it;''^ and in reply to the Senator 
from Vermont, he declared, that in case of in 
suit, taking another out and shooting him 
might be " satisfaction." 

1 do not dwell on this instance, nor on any 
of these instances, except to make a single com 



n 



ment. These declarations have all been made 
in open Senate, without any check from the 
Chair. Of course, they are dear violations of 
the first principles of Parliamentary Law, and 
tend directly to provoke a violation of the law 
of the land. All duels are prohibited by solemn 
act of Congress. (See Statutes at Large, vol. 
5, page 318, February 20, lyi)',).) In case of 
death, the surviving parties are declared guilty 
of felony, to be punished by hard labor in the 
penitentiary ; and, even where nothing has 
occurred beyond the challenge, all the parties 
to it, whether givers or receivers, are declared 
guilty of high crime and misdemeanor, also to 
be punished by hard labor in the penitentiary. 
Of course, every menace of a duel in Congress 
seta this law at defiance. And yet the Sena- 
tors, who thus openly disregard a law sanc- 
tioned by the Constitution and commended by 
morality, presume to complain on this floor be- 
cause other Senators disregard the Fugitive 
Slave Bill, a statute which, according to the 
pro-found .convictions of large numbers, is as 
UDCOustitutioual as it is offensive to the moral 
senee. Let Senators who are so clamorous for 
'' the enforcement of laws," begin by enforcing 
the statute which declares the Duel to be a 
felony. At least, let the statute cease to be a 
dead letter in this Chamber. But this is too 
much to expect while Slavery prevails here, 
for the Duel is a part of that System of Vio- 
lence which has its origin in Slavery. 

But it is when aroused by the Slave Ques- 
tion iu Congress ihat Slave-mastei's have most 
truly shown themselves ; and here again I shall 
speak only of what has already passed into his- 
tory. Even iu that earliest debate, in the Fir.st 
Congress after the Coustitution, on the memorial 
of Dr. Franklin, simply calling upon Congress 
" to step to the verge ot its powers to discourage 
every species of traffic in our fellow-men," the 
Slave-masters became angry, indulged in sneers 
at " the men in the gallery,'' being Quakers 
and Abolitionists, and, according to the faith- 
ful historian, Hildreth, poured out " torrents 
of abuse," while oue of them began the charge 
80 often since directed against all Anti-Slavery 
men, by dechiriug his astonishment that Dr. 
Franklin had " given countenance to an appli- 
cation which called upon Congress, in explicit 
terms, to break a solemn compact to which he 
had himself been a party," when it was obvious 
that Dr. Franklin had done no such thing. 
This great man was soon summoned away by 
death, but not until he had fastened upon this 
debate an undying condemnation, by portray- 
ing, with his matchless pen, a scene in the Di- 
van at Algiers, where a corsair Slave-dealer, 
insisting upon the enslavement of White Chris- 
tians, is made to repeat the Congressional 
speech of an American Slave-master. 

But these displays of Violence have natural- 
ly increased with the intensity of the discus- 
sion. Impelled to be severe, but with little 
appreciation of the finer forms of debate, they 



could not be severe except by violating the 
rules of debate ; not knowing that there is a 
serener power than any found iu personalities, 
and that all severity which transcends the rules 
of debate, becomes disgusting as the talk of 
Yahoos, and harms him only who degrades 
himself to be its mouthpiece. Of course, on 
such occasions, the cause of Slavery, amidst 
all se'eming triumphs, has lost, and Truth has 
gained. 

It was against John Quincy Adams that thio 
violence was first directed in full force. To a 
character spotless as snow, and to universal 
attainments as a scholar, this illustrious citizen 
added experience in all the eminent posts of 
the Republic, which he had filled with an abili- 
ty and integrity, now admitted even by his 
enemies, and which impartial history cannot 
forget. Having been President of the United 
States, he entered the Honse of Representa- 
tives at the period when the Slave Question in 
its revival first began to occupy the public atten- 
tion. In all the completeness of his nature, he 
became the representative of Humau Freedom, 
The first struggle occurred on the right of pe- 
tition, which Slave-masters, with characteristic 
tyranny, sought to suppress. This was resist- 
ed by the venerable patriot, and what he did 
was always done with his whole heart. Then 
was poured upon him abuse as from a cart. 
Slave-masters, " foaming out their shame," be- 
came conspicuous, not less for an avowal of 
sentiments at which ClviHzatioa blushed, than 
for an effrontery of manner where the acci- 
dental legislator was lost iu the natural over- 
seer, and the lash of the plantation resounded 
in the voice. 

Iu an address to his constituents, 17th Sep- 
tember, 1842, Mr. Adams thus frankly de- 
scribes the treatment he had experienced : 

" I never can Uike i>irt in any ilebite upon an important 
cubject, bo it only t;poa a more abstracllon, bvit a paolc 
opuus upon mc/ol' personal iavoct;vo iu return. Langu.iL;e 
Ii;is no word of repioacli and raiijng that is not iiiirlea at 
aie." 

And in the same speech he gives a glimpse 

of Slave-masters : 

" Where the Souih cannot offoct her object by brow-beat- 
iug, she wheedles." 

Ou another occasion he said, with his ac- 
customed power: 

'■ Insult, bullying, anrl threat, characterize the Slnrehold- 
nrs in Coiii^re.ss ; Uillc, timidity, and submission, tUo Uepre- 
soulutives I'rum tho Free States.'' 

Nor were the Slave-masters contented with 
the violence of words. True to the instincts of 
Slavery, they threatened personal indignity of 
every kind, and even assassination. And here 
South Carolina naturally took the lead. 

The Charleston Mercimi, which always speaks 
the true voice of Slavery, said in 1837 : 

'■ Public opinion in the South would now, wearesure, jcist- 
ify an imtuediato resort to force by the Southern delegation, 
cr^n on the floor nf Congress, were they Ibrthwith to se;ze .and 
cJras; li-om tho Hall any man who dared to insult them, as 
that eccentric old showman, John Quincy Adams, Il.^s dared 
to do." 

And at a public dinner at Walterborough, 



24 



in South Carolina, on the 4th of July, 1842, the 
following toast, afterwards preserved by Mr. 
Adama in one of his speeches, was drunk with 
unbounded applause : 

" May we never want a Democrat to trip up the heels of 
i Federalist, or a hangman to prepare a halter for John 
Quincy Adams 1 [Nine cheers.] " 

A Slave-master from South Carolina, Mr. 
Waddy Thompson, in debate in the Houee of 
Representatives, threatened the venerable pa- 
triot with the " penitentiary ; " and another 
Slave master, Mr. Marshall of Kentucky, in- 
sisted that he should be " silencedy Ominous 
word 1 fall of suggestion to the bludgeon-bearers 
of Slavery. But the great representative of Free- 
dom stood firm. Meanwhile Slavery assumed 
more and more the port of the giant Maul in 
the Pilgrim's Progress, who continued with his 
club breaking the skulls of pilgrims, until he 
was slain by Mr. Great Heart, making way for 
the other pilgrims, Mr. Valiant for Truth, Mr. 
Standfast, and Mr. Honest. 

Next to John Quincy Adams, no person in 
Congress has been more conspicuous for long- 
continued and patriotic services against Slave- 
ry, than Joshua R. Giddings, of Ohio ; nor 
have any such services received in higher de- 
gree that homage which is found in the per- 
sonal and most vindictive assaults of Slave- 
masters. For nearly twenty years he sat in the 
House of Representatives, bearing his testi- 
mony always loftily, and never shrinking, 
though exposed to the grossest brutality. In 
ft recent public address at New York, he has 
'' himself recounted some of these instances. 

On the presentation by him of resolutions 
affirming that Slavery was a local institution, 
and could not exist outside of the Slave States, 
and applying this principle to the case of the 
Creole, the House "caught" the South Caro- 
lina fever. A proposition censuring him was 
introduced by felave masters, and pressed to a 
vote under the operation of the previous ques- 
tion without giving hira a moment for explana- 
tion, or reply. This glaring outrage upon free- 
dom of debate was redressed at once by the 
constituency of Mr. Giddings, who returned 
him again to his seat. From that time the 
rage of the Slave masters against him was con- 
stant. Here is his own brief account : 

" I will not speak of the time when Dawson, of Louisiana, 
drew a bowie-knilb for my assussination. I was afterwards 
Bpe;iking with regard to a certain transaction in which ne- 
groes were ccncerned in Georgia, when Mr. Black, of Geor- 
gia, raising his bludgeon, and standing in front of my seat, 
said to me, ' If you repeat that language again, I will knock 
you down.' It was a solemn moment for mc. I had never 
been knocked down, and having some curiosity upon that 
subject, I repeated the language. Then Mr. Dawson, of 
Louisiana, the same who had drawn the bowie-knife, placed 
his hand in his pocket and said, with an oath which I will 
not repeat, that he would shoot mc, at the same time cock- 
ing tho pistol, so that all around me could hear it click." 

Listening to these horrors, ancient stories of 
Barbarism seem all outdone ; and the " viper- 
broth," which was a favorite decoction in a bar- 
barous age, seems to have become the daily 
driak of American Slave-masters. The blas- 



pheming madness of the witches in Mac* 
beth, dancing round the cauldron, and drop- t 
ping into it '' sweltered venom sleeping got," i 
and every other " charm of powerful trouble," '" 
was all renewed. But Mr. Giddings, strong in 
the consciousness of right, knew the dignity ol 
his position. He knew that it is honorable 
always to serve the cause of Liberty, and that 
it is a privilege to suffer for this cause. Re- 
proach, contumely, violence even unto death, 
are rewards, not punishments ; and clearly the 
indignities which you offer can excite no shame 
except for their authors. 

Besides these eminent instances, others may 
be mentioned, showing the personalities to 
which Senators and Representatives have been 
exposed, when undertaking to speak for Free- 
dom. And truth compels me to add, that there 
is too much evidence that these have been ag- 
gravated by the circumstance that, where per- 
sons notoriously rejected an appeal to the Duel, ] 
such insults could be offered with impunity. 

Here is an instance. In 1848, Mr. Hale, the 
Senator from New Hamp-hire, who still contin- 
ues an honor to this body, introduced into the 
Senate a bill for the protection of property in 
the District of Columbia, especially against 
mob-violence. In the course of the debate that 
ensued, Mr. Foote, a Slave-master from Missifl- 
sippi, thus menaced him : 

" I invite the Senator to the State of Mississippi, and will 
tell him beforehand, in all honesty, that he could not go ten 
miles into the interior before ho would grace one of the tall- 
est trees of the forest with a rope around his neck, with the 
approbationof every virtuous and patriotic citizen, and that, 
if necessary , / should myself assist in ike oiieralion. ' ' 

That this bloody threat may not seem to 
stand alone, I add two others. 

Mr. Hammond, of South Carolina, now a Sen- 
ator, is reported as saying in the House ol 
Representatives : 

" I warn tho abolitionists, ignorant, infatuated barbarians 
as they are, that if chance shall throw any of them into oui 
hands, they may expect a felon's death! " 

And in 1841, Mr. Payne, a Slave-master from 
Alabama, in the course of debate in the House 
of Representatives, alluding to the Abolition- 
ists, among whom he insisted the Postmaster 
General ought to be included, declared that — 

" He would put the brand of Cain upon them — yes, the 
mark of hell — and if they came to the South, he would 7ionj 
them like dogs I" 

And these words were applied to men who 
simply expressed the recorded sentiments ol 
Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin. 

Even during the present session of Congress, 
I find, in the Congressional Globe, the f'ollov/- 
ing interruptions of Mr. Lovejoy, when speak- 
ing on Slavery. I do not characterize them ; 
but simply cite them : 

By Mr. Barksdale, of Mississippi : 

" Order that black-hearted scoundrel and nigger-stealing 
thief to take his seat." 

By Mr. Boyce, of South Carolina, addressing 

Mr. LovEJOY : 

" Then behave yourself." 

By Mr. Gartbell, of Georgia, (in his seat:l 



25 



"The man is crazy." 

By Mr. Barksdai-e, of Mississippi, again : 
'•No, air, you stand there to-day an infamous, perjured 
fUUiin." 

By Mr. Ashmore, of South Carolina : 
♦•Yes ; he is a perjured villain, and he perjures himself 
very hour he occupies a seat on this floor." 

► By Mr. Singleton', of Mississippi : 

" And a negro-thief into tho bargain." 

By Mr. Barksdale, of Mississippi, again: 
" I hope my colleague will hold no parley with that per- 
jured negro-thief." 

By Mr. Singleton", of Mississippi, again : 

" No, sir ; any geutlcmau shall have time, but not such a 
moan, despicable wretch as that 1 " 

By Mr. Martin, of Virginia : 

" And if you come among us, we will do with you as we 
did with John Brown — hang you as high as Hamau. I say 
that as a Virginian." 

But enough — enough ; and I now turn from 
this branch of the argument with a single re- 
mark. While exhibiting the Character of 
Slave-masters, these numerous instances — and 
they might be multiplied indefinitely — attest 
the weakness of their cause. It requires no 
special talent to estimate the insignificance of 
an argument that can be supported only by 
violence. The scholar will not forget the story 
told by Lucian of the colloquy between Jupi- 
ter and a simple countryman. They talked 
with ease and freedom until they differed, when 
the angry god at once menaced his honest op- 
ponent with a thunder-bolt. "Ah, ah!" said 
the clown, with perfect composure, " now, Ju- 
piter, I know you are wrong. You are always 
wrong when you appeal to your thunder." 
And permit me to say, that every appeal, 
whether to the Duel, the bludgeon, or the re- 
volver — every menace of personal violence, and 
every outrage of language, besides disclosing 
a hideous Barbarism, also discloses the fevered 
nervousness of a cause already humbled in de- 
bate. 

(4.) Much as has been said to exhibit the 
Character of Slave-masters, the work would be 
incomplete if I failed to point out that uncon- 
sciousness of the fatal influence of Slavery, 
which completes the evidence of the Barbarism 
under which they live. Nor am I at liberty to 
decline thig topic ; but I shall be brief. 

That Senators should openly declare Slavery 
" ennobling," at least to the master, and also 
"the black marble key-stone of our national 
arf>h," would excite wonder if it were not ex- 
plained by the examples of history. There are 
men who, in the spirit of paradox, make them- 
selves the partisans of a bad cause, as Jerome 
Cardan wrote an Encomium on Nero. But 
where there is no disposition to paradox, it is 
natural that a cherished practice should blind 
those who are under its influence ; nor is there 
any end to these exaggerations. According to 
Thucydides, piracy in the early ages of Greece 
was alike widespread and honorable ; so much 
80, that Telemachus and Mentor, on landing 



at Pylos, were asked by Nestor if they were 
"pirates" — precisely as a stranger in South 
Carolina might be asked if he were a Slave- 
master, iiidnapping, too, which was a kindred 
indulgence, was openly avowed, and I doubt 
not held t^ be "ennobling." Next to the un- 
consciousness which is nolicod in childhood, is 
the unconsciousness of Barbarism. The real 
Barbarian is as unconscious as an infant ; and 
the Slave-master shows much of the same char- 
acter. No New Zealandor exults in his tattoo, 
no savage of the Northwest coast exults in his 
flat head, faore than the Slave-master in these 
latter days — and always, of course, with honor- 
able exceptions — exults in his unfortunate 
condition. The Slave-master hugs his dis- 
gusting practice as the Carib of the Gulf hug- 
ged Cannibalism, and as Brigham Young now 
hugs Polygamy. The delusion of the " Goitre " 
is repeated. This prodigious swelling of the 
neck, constituting " a hideous wallet of flesh " 
pendulous upon the breast, is common to the 
population on the slopes of the Alps ; but, ac- 
customed to this deformity, the sufferer comes 
to regard it with, pride, as Slave-masters with 
us regard Slavery, and it is said that those who 
have no swelling are laughed at and called 
"goose-necked." 

With knowledge comes distrust and the mod- 
est consciousness of imperfection ; but the pride 
of Barbarism has no such limitations. It di- 
lates in the thin air of ignorance, and makes 
boasts. Surely, if these illustratious are not 
entirely inapplicable, then must we find in the 
boasts of Slave-masters new occasion to re- 
gret the influence of Slavery. 

It is this same influence which renders 
Slave-masters insensible to those characters 
which are among the true glories of the Re- 
public ; which makes them forget that Jeffer- 
son, wuu wrote the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, and Washington, who commanded its 
armies, were Abolitionists ; which renders 
them insensible to the inspiring words of the 
one, and to the commanding example of the 
other. Of these great men, it is the praise, 
well deserving perpetual mention, and only 
grudged by a malign influence, that reared 
amidst Slavery, they did not hesitate to con- 
demn it. To the present debate, Jefferson, in 
repeated utterances, alive with the fire of genius 
and truth, has contributed the most important 
testimony for Freedom ever pronounced in this 
hemisphere, in words equal to the cause, and 
Washington, often quoted as a Slave-master, 
in the solemn dispositions of his last Will and 
Testament, has contributed an example which 
is beyond even the words of Jefferson, Do 
not, sir, call him a Slave-master, who entered 
into the presence of his Maker only as the 
Emancipator of his slaves. The difference be- 
tween such men and the Slave-masters whom 
I expose to-day is so {vrecise that it cannot be 
mistaken. The first looked down upon Slavery ; 
the second look up to Slavery. The first, rec- 



26 



OgnisintT its wroncr, ■n-ere at, onoo liberated from 
its pernicious inflaenoe-^, wriii^ the latter, up- 
holding' it as right and '• enrioblingj" must nat- 
urally draw irom it motives of conduct. The 
first, conscious of the character of Slavery, 
were n(*t misled by it; the second, dwelling in 
unconsoiousuess of its true character, surren- 
der blindly to its barbarous tendencies, and, 
veriiying the words of the poet, 

■■ So perfect is iheir misery. 

Not once perceive ihtir foul disfigurement, 

But boasl theraselve'5 more comely than before." 

Mr. President, it is time to close this branch 
of the argument. The Barbarism of Slavery 
has been now exposed, first, in the Law of 
Slavery, with its five pretensions, founded on 
the assertion of property in man, the denial of 
the conjugal relation, the infraction of the 
parental relation, the exclusion from knowl- 
edge, and the robbery of the fruits of another's 
labor, all these having the single object of 
compelling men to toork without wages, while 
its Barbarism was still further attested by 
tracing the law in its origin to barbarous Africa ; 
and secondly, it has been exposed in a careful 
examination of the economicai'results of Slave- 
ry, illustrated by a contrast between the Free 
States and the Slave States, sustained by offi- 
cial figures. From this exposure of Slavery, 
I proceeded to consider its influences on Slave- 
masters ; whose true character stands confessed, 
first, in the Law of Slavery which is their work ; 
next, in the relations between them and their 
slaves, maintained by three inhuman instru- 
ments ; next, in their relations with each other, 
and with society, and here we have seen them at 
home undertheimmediateinfluenceof Slavery— 
also in the communities of which they are a 
part — practicing violence, and pushing it eveiy- 
where, in street fight and duel ; espt-oiall}' ra- 
ging against all who question the pretensions 
of Slavery ; entering even into the Free States; 
but not in lawless outbreaks only; also in otfi- 
cia5 acts, as of Georgia and of South Car- 
oliraa, with regard to two Massachusetts cit- 
izens ; and then, ascending in audacity, enter- 
ing the Halls of Congress, where they have 
raged as at home, against all who set them- 
Kiiives against their assumptions, while the 
V. hole gloomy array of unquestionable facts has 
\,>t-%n closed by portraying the melancholy un- 
<»onsciousnes which constitutes one of the dis- 
tinctive features of this Barbarism. 

Such is my answer to the assumption of fact 
in behalf of Slavery hy Senators on the other 
side. But before passing to that other as- 
eamption of constitutional law, which consti- 
tutes the second branch of this discussion, I add 
testimony to the influence of Slavery on Slave 
masters in other countries, which is too import- 
ant to be neglected, and may properly find a 
plac« here. 

Among those who have done most to press 
forward in Russia that sublime act of emanci- 



pation by which the present Emperor is win- 
ning lustre, not only for his own country, but 
for our age, is M. TourguenefF. Originally a 
Slave-master himself, with numerous slaves, 
and residing where Slavery prevailed, he saw, 
with the instincts of a noble character, ' the 
essential Barbarism of this relation, and in an 
elaborate work on Russia, which is now before 
me, he exposed it with rare ability and courage. 
Thus he speaks of its influence on Slave- 
masters : 

" But if Slavery degrades the slave, it degrades more the 
master. This is an old adage, and long observations have 
proved to me that this adage iS not a paradox. In fact, how 
can that man respect his own dignity, his own rights, who 
has learned not to respect either the rights or the dignity of 
his I'ellow-man? What control can the moral and religious 
sentiments have over a man who sees himself invested with 
a povver so eminently contrary to morals and religion ? The 
continual exercise of an unjust claim, even when it is mod- 
erated, finishes by corrupting the character of the man, and 
spoiling his judgment. * * * The possession of a slave 
being the result of injustice, the relations of tlia master with 
the slave Ciinnot be otherwise than a succession of injustices. 
Among good masters, (and it is agreed to call so those who 
do not abuse their power as much as they might,) these re- 
lations are clothed with forms less repugnant than among 
others; but here the difference stops. Who could remain 
always pure, when carried away by his disposition, excited 
by his temper, drawn by caprice, ho Cjin with impunity- 
oppress, insult, humiliate his fellows. And, let it be carefully 
remarked, that intelligence, civilization, do not avail. The 
enlightened man, the civilized man, is none the less a man ; 
that he should not oppress, it is necessary that it should be 
impossible for him to oppress. All men caniiet, lilcc Louis 
XiV, throw their stick from the window, when they feel a 
desire to strike." — La Rass^ie et Les liusses, vol. II. paaes 
157-'8. 

Another authority, unimpeachable at all 
points, whose fortune it has been, from exten- 
sive travels, to see Slavery in the most various 
forms, and Slave-masters under the most vari- 
ous conditions — I refer to the great African 
traveller, Dr. Livingstone — thus touches the 
character of Slave-masters : 

" I can never cease to bo unfeignedly tiiankfaTtlrat I was 
not born in a land of slaves. No one can understand the un- 
utterable mifanness of the slave system on the minds of 
those who, ?)!iJ for tha strange ohUquilij which prevents them 
fromfeelinj the degradation of not being O'-nlleinen emiugh ta 
pay for serciccs raulercd, would be equal in virtue to our- 
selves. Fraud becomes as natural to them • as paying one's 
way ' is to the rest of mankmd. ' ' — Livinjstone's Travels, duip. 
II, page S3. 

Thus does the experience of Slavery in 
other countries confirm the sad experience 
among us. 

Second Assumption. — Discarding now all 
the presumptuous boasts for Slavery, and bear- 
ing in mind its essential Barbarism, I come 
to consider that second assumption of Sen- 
ators on the other side, which is, of course, 
inspired by the first, even if not its immediate 
consequence, t' at, under the Constitution, Slave- 
masters may take their slaves into the national 
Territories, and there continue to hold them, as 
at home in the Slave States ; and that this 
would be the case in any territory newly ac- 
quired, by purchase or by war, as "-f Mexico 
on the South or Canada on the North. 

And here I begin by the remark, that as the 
assumption of constitutional law is inspired by 
the assumption of fact with regard to the " fcu- 



27 



nobling" character of Slavery, so it must lose 
much if not all of its force when the laitcr as- 
sumption is shown to be false, as has been done 
to-day. 

When Slavery is seen to be the Barbarism 
which it is, there are few who would not cover 
it from sight, rather than insist upon sending 
it abroad with the fla^ of the Republic. It is 
only because people have been insensible to 
its true character that they have tolerated for a 
moment its exorbitant pretensions. Therefore 
this long exposition, where Slavery has been 
made to stand forth in its five-fold Barbarism, 
with the single object of compelling men to 
work without wages, naturally prepares the way 
to consider the assumption of constitutional 
law. 

This assumption may be described as an at- 
tempt to Africanize the Constitution, by intro- 
ducing into it the barbarous Law of Slavery, 
derived as we have seen originally from bar- 
barous Africa ; and then, through such Afri- 
canization of the Constitution, to Africanize 
the Territories, and to Africanize the National 
Government. In using this language to ex- 
press the obvious effect of this assumption, I 
borrow a suggestive term, first employed by a 
Portuguese writer at the beginning of this cen- 
tury, when protesting against the spread of 
Slavery in Brazil. [See Rosier s Travels in Bra- 
zil, vol. ii, p. 248.) Analyze the assumption, 
and it will be found to standon two pretensions, 
either ol which failing, the assumption fails also. 
These two are — first, the African pretension of 
property in man ; and, secondly, the pretension 
that such property is recognised in the Consti- 
tution. 

With regard to the first of these pretensions, 
I might simply refer to what I have already 
said at an earlier stage of this argument. But 
I should do injustice to the part it has been 
made t»o play in this controversy, if I did not 
again expose it. Then I sought particularly to 
show its Barbarism ; now I shall show some- 
thing more. 

Property implies an owner and a thing owned. 
On the one side is a human being, and on the 
other side a thing. But the very idea of a human 
being necessarily excludes the idea of property 
in that being, just as the very idea of a thing 
necessarily excludes the idea of a human being. 
It is clear that a thing cannot be a human being, 
and it is equally clear that a human being can- 
not be a thing. And the law itself, when it 
adopts the phrase, " relation of master and 
slave," confesses its reluctance to sanction the 
claim of property. It shrinks from the preten- 
flion of Senators, and satisfies itself with a for- 
mula, which does not openly degrade human 
nature. 

If this property does exist, out of what title 
is it derived ?" Under what ordinance ot Na- 
ture or of Nature's God is one human being 
stamped an owner and another stamped a 
thing ? God is no respecter of persons. Where 



is the sanction for this respect of certain per- 
sons to a degree which becomes outrage to 
other persons ? God is the Father of the Hu- 
man Family, and we are all his children. 
Where then is the sanction of this pretension 
by which a brother lays violent hands upon a 
brother? To ask these questions is humil- 
iating; but it is clear there can bo but one re- 
spouse. There is no sanction for such preten- 
sion ; no ordinance for it, or title. On all 
grounds of reason, and waiving all questions 
of "positive" statute, the Vermont Judge was 
nobly right, when, rejecting the claim of a 
Slave-master, he said: "No; not until you 
show a Bill of Sale from the Almighty." Noth- 
ing short of this impossible link in the chain of 
title would do. I know something of the great 
judgments by which the jurisprudence of our 
country has been illustrated ; but I doubt if 
there is anything in the wisdom of Marshall, 
the learning of Story, or the completeness of 
Kent, which will brighten with timo like this 
honest decree. 

The intrinsic feebleness of this pretension is 
apparent in the intrinsic feebleness of the ar- 
guments by which it is maintained. These 
are two-fold, and both have been put forth in 
recent debate by the Senator from Mississippi, 
[Mr. Davis.] 

The first is the alleged inferiority of the Afri- 
can race; an argument which, while surrender- 
ing to Slavery a whole race, leaves it uncertain 
whether the same principle may not be appliwl 
to other races, as to the polished Japanese, 
who are now the guests of the nation, and even 
to persons of obvious inferiority in the white 
race. Indeed, the latter pretension is openly 
made in other quarters. The Richmond En- 
quirer, a leading journal of Slave-masters, 
declares, " The principle of Slavery is in itself 
right, and does not depend on difference of com- 
plexion." And a leading writer among Slave- 
masters, George Fitzhugh, of Virginia, in his 
Sociology for the South, declares, " Slavery, 
black or white, is right and necessary. Nature 
has made the weak in mind or body for slaves." 
And in the same vein, a Democratic paper of 
South Carolina has said, " Slavery is the natu- 
ral and normal condition of the laboring man, 
while or black." 

These more extravagant pretensions reveal 
still further the feebleness of the pretension 
put forth by the Senator ; while instances, ac- 
cumulating constantly, attest the difficulty of 
discriminating between the two races. Mr. 
Paxton, of Virginia, tells us, that ''the best 
blood in V^irginia flows in the veins of the 
slaves ; " and fugitive slaves have been latterly 
advertised as possessing "a round face," "blue 
eyes," " flaxen hair," and as " escaping under 
the pretence of being a white man." 

This is not the time to enter upon tht) great 
question of race, in the various lights of re- 
ligion, history, and science. Sure I am that 
they who unaerstand«it best, wUl be least dia- 



-28 



posed to the pretension, which on the assumed 
ground of interiority would condemn one race 
to Le the property of another. If the African 
race be inferior, as is alleged, then is it the un- 
questionable duty of a Christian Civilization to 
life it from its degradation, not by the bludgeon 
and the chain, not by this barbarous pretension 
of ownership ; but by a generous charity, which 
shall be measured precisely by the extent of its 
inferiority. 

The second argument put forward for this 
pretension, and twice repeated by the Senator 
from Mississippi, is, that the Africans are the 
posterity of Ham, the son of Noah, through 
Canaan, who was cursed by Noah, to be the 
" servant " — that is the word employed — of his 
brethren, and that this malediction has fallen 
upon all his descendants, who are accordingly 
devoted by God to perpetual bondage, not only 
in the third and fourth generations, but through- 
out all succeeding time. Surely, when the 
Senator quoted Scripture to enforce the claim 
of Slave-masters, he did not intend a jest. 
And yet it is hard to suppose him in earnest. 
The Senator is Chairman of the Committee on 
Military Affairs, in which he is doubtless expe- 
rienced. He may, perhaps, set a squadron in 
the field, but he has evidently considered very 
little the text of Scripture on which he relies. 
The Senator assumes, that it has fixed the 
doom of the colored race, leaving untouched 
the white race. Perhaps he does not know 
that, in the worst days of the Polish aristocra- 
cy, this same argument was adopted as the 
excuse for holding white serfs in bondage, pre- 
cisely as it is now put forward by the Senator, 
and that even to this day the angry Polish 
noble addresses his white peasant as the " sou 
of Ham." 

It hardly comports with the gravity of this 
debate to dwell on such an argument, and yet 
I cannot go wrong if, for the sake of a much- 
injured race, I brush it away. To justify the 
Senator in his application of this ancient 
curse, he must maintain at least five different 
propositions, as essential links in the chain of 
the Afric-American slave : Jirst, that, by this 
malediction, Canaan himself was actually 
changed into a "chattel," whereas he is simply 
made the "servant" of his brethren; secondly, 
that not merely Canaan, but all his posterity, 
to the remotest generation, was so changed, 
whereas the language has no such extent ; 
thirdli/, that the Afric-American actually be- 
longs to the posterity of Canaan — an ethno 
logical assumption absurdly difBcult to estab- 
lish ; fourthly, that each of the descendants of 
Shem and Japheth has a right to hold an Afric- 
Ainerican fellow-man as a "chattel" — a propo- 
sition which finds no semblance of support; 
and fifthly, that every Slave-master is truly 
descended from Shem or Japheth — a pedigree 
which 1)0 anxiety can establish! This plain 
analysis, which may fitly excite a smile, shows 



the five-fold absurdity of an attempt to found 
this pretension on 

" Any successive litle, long and dark, 
Drawn from the mouldy rolls of Noah's ark." 

From the character of these two arguments 
for property in man, I am brought again to its 
denial. 

It is natural that Senators who pretend that, / 
by the law of mature, man may hold property 
in man, should find this pretension in the 
Constitution. But the pretension^ is as much 
without foundation in the Constitution as it is 
without foundation in nature. It is not too 
much to say that there is not one sentence, 
phrase, or word — not a single suggestion, hint, 
or equivocation, even — out of which any such 
pretension can be implied ; while great national 
acts and important contemporaneous declara- 
tions in the Convention which framed the 
Constitution, in different forms of language, 
and also controlling rules of interpretation, 
render this pretension impossible. Partisans, 
taking counsel of their desires, find in the 
Constitution, as in the Scriptures, what they 
incline to find; and never was this more ap- 
parent than when Slave-masters deceive them- 
selves so far as to find in the Constitution a 
pretension which exists only in their own souls. 

Looking juridically for one moment at this 
question, we shall be brought to the conclu- 
sion, according to the admission of courts and 
jurists, first in Europe, and then in our own 
country, that Slavery can be derived irom no 
doubtful word or mere pretension, but only from 
clear and special recognition. " The state of Sla- 
very," said Lord Mansfield, pronouncing judg- 
ment in the great case of Somersett, " is of such'^ 
a nature that it is incapable of being introdu- 
ced on any reasons, moral or political, but only 
by positive laic. It is so odious, that nothing 
can be suffered to support it but positive 
LAW " — that is, express words of a written 
text; and this principle, which commends it- 
self to the enlightened reason, has been adopt- 
ed by several courts in the Slave States. Of 
course, every leaning must be against Slavery. 
A pretension so peculiar and offensive-^-so 
hostile to reason — so repugnant to the laws of 
nature and the inborn Rights of Man ; which, 
in all its fivefold wrong, has no other object 
than to compel fellow-men to work without 
wages ; such a pretension, so tyrannical, so 
unjust, so mean, so barbarous, can find do 
place in any system of Government, unless by 
virtue o? posit ice sanction. It can spring from 
no doubtful phrases. It must be declared by 
unambiguous words, incapable of a double 
sense. 

At the adoption of the Constitution, this rule, 
promulgated in the Court of King's Bench, by 
the voice of the most finished magistrate in 
English history, was as well known in our coun- 
try as any principle of the common law ; es- 
pecially was it known to the eminent lawyer* 



29 



^n the Convention ; nor is it too much to say I 
that the CoustiLutioii was framed with this rule | 
on Slavery as a guiile. And the Supreme ^ 
Court of the United States at a lator day, iu | 
the case of Unikd Slates v. Fisher, 2 Crancb, | 
390, by the voice of Chief Justice Marshall, pro- : 
mulgated this same rule, in words stronger, 
even than those of Lord Mansfield, saying : 1 
" Where rights are infringed, where fuuda- j 
mental principles are overthrown, where the | 
general system of tl.'e laws is departed from, 
the legislative intention must be expressed with 
irresistible clearness, to induce a court of jus- 
tice to suppose a design to effect such object." 
It is well known, however, that these two dec- 
larations are little more than new forms for 
the ancient rule of the common law, as 
expressed by Fortescue: Impius et crudelis 
judicandus est qui LiheHati nonfavet; He is 
to be adjudged impious and cruel who does 
not favor Liberty ; and, as expressed by Black- 
stone, " The law is always ready to catch at 
anything in favor of Liberty." 

But, as no prescription runs against the 
King, so no prescription is allowed to run 
against Slavery, while all the early victories of 
Freedom are set aside by the Slave-masters of 
to-day. The prohibition of Slavery in the Mis- 
souri Territory, and all the precedents, legis- 
lative and judicial, for the exercise of this 
power, admitted from the beginning until 
now, have been overturned ; but at last, bolder 
grown Slave-masters do not hesitate to assail 
that principle of jurisprudence which makes 
Slavery the creature of " positive law " alone, 
to be upheld only by words of " irresistible 
clearness." The case of Somersett, in which 
this great rule was declared, has been im- 
peached on this floor, as the Declaration of 
Independence has been impeached also. And 
here the Senator from Louisiana [Mr. Benja- 
min] has taken the lead. He has dwelt on the 
assertion that, in the history of llnglish law, 
there were earlier cases, where a contrary prin- 
ciple was declared. But permit me to say that 
no such cases, even if they exist in authentic 
reports, can impair the influence of this well- 
considered authority. The Senator knows well 
that an old and barbarous case is a poor 
answer to a principle, which is brought into 
activity by the demands of an advancing Civil- 
ization, and which once recognised can never 
be denied; that jurisprudence is not a dark 
lantern, shining iu a narrow circle, and never 
changing, but a gladsome light, which, slowly 
emerging from original darkness, grows and 
spreads with human improvement, until at last 
it becomes as broad and general as the Light 
of Day. When the Senator, in this age- 
leaguing all his forces — undertakes to drag 
down that immortal principle, which made 
Slavery impossible in England, as, thank God ! 
it makes Slavery impossible under the Consti- 
tution, he vainly tugs to drag down a luminary 
from the sky. 



The enormity of the pretensiin that Slavery 
is sanctioned by the Constitution becomes still 
more apparent, when we read the Constitution 
in the light of great national acts and of con- 
teraporanoHS declarations. First co(pes the 
Declaration of Independence, the illuminated 
initial letter of our history, which in familiar 
words announces that " all men are created 
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator 
with certain unalienable rights; that among 
these are Life, Libert)/, and the Pursuit of 
Happiness ; that to secure these rights govern- 
ments are instituted among mi^n, deriving their 
just powers from the consent of the governed." 
Nor does this Declaration, binding the con- 
sciences of all who enjoy the privileges it se- 
cured, stand alone. There is another national 
act, less known, but in itself a key to the first, 
when, at the successful close of the Revolution, 
the Continental Congress, in a solemn address 
to the people, loftily announced : " Let it be 
remembered, that it has ever been the pride 
and the boast of America, that the rifjJils for 
ivhich she has contended were the rights of hu- 
man nature. By the blessing of the A uthor of 
these rights, they have prevailed over all opposi- 
tion, and form the Basis of thirteen independ- 
ent States." Now, whatever may be the priv- 
ileges of States in their individual capacities, 
within their several local jurisdictions, no 
power can be attributed to the nation, in the 
absence of positive unequivocal grant, incon- 
sistent with these two national declarations. 
Here is the national heart, the national soul, 
the national will, the national voice, which 
must inspire our interpretation of the Consti- 
tution, and enter into and diffuse itself through 
all the national legislation. Such are the com- 
manding authorities which constitute " Life, 
Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness," and 
in more general words, " the Rights of Human 
Nature," without distinction of race, or recog- 
nition of the curse of Ham, as the basis of our 
national institutions. They need no additional 
support. 

But, in strict harmony with these are the 
many utterances in the Convention which 
framed the Constitution : of Gouverneur Mor- 
ris, of Pennsylvania, who announced that " he 
would never concur ia upholding domestic Sla- 
very; it was a nefarious institution ; " of El- 
bridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, who said "' that 
we had nothing to do with the conduct of the 
States as to Slavery, but we ought to be careful 
not to give any sanction to it ; " of Roger Sher- 
man and Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut, and 
Mr. Gorhara, of Massachusetts, who all con- 
curred with Mr. Gerry ; and especially of Mr. 
Madison, of Virginia, who, in mild juridical 
phrase, " thodght it wrong to admit in the 
: Constitution the idea that there could be 
I PROPERTY IN MAN." And lastly, as if to com- 
j plete the elaborate work of Freedom, and to 
give expression to all these utterances, the 
I word " servitude," which had been allowed in 



30 



the clause on the apportionment of Represent- 
atives, was struck out, and the word "service " 
substituted instead. This final exclusion from 
the Constitution of the idea of property in man 
w^iS on the motion of Mr. Randolph, of Vir- 
ginia ; and the reason assigned for the substi- 
tution, according to Mr. Madison, in his au- 
thentic report of the debate, was, that '• the 
former was thought to express the condition 
of slaves, and the latter the obligations of free 
pei'smisJ'^ Thus, at every point, by great na- 
tional declarations, by frank utterances in the 
Convention, and by a positive act in adjusting 
the text of the Constitution, was the idea of 
property in man unequivocally rejected. 

This pretension, which may be dismissed as 
utterly baseless, becomes absurd when it is 
considered to what result it necessarily con- 
ducts. If the Barbarism of Slavery, in all its 
fivefold wrong, is really embodied iu the Con- 
stitution, so as to be beyond the reach of pro- 
hibition, either Congressional or local, in the 
Territories, then, for the same reason, it must 
be beyond the reach of prohibition or abolition, 
even by local authority in the States themselves, 
and, just so long as the Constitution continues 
unchanged. Territories and States alike must 
be open to all its blasting influences. And 
yet this pretension, which, in its natural conse- 
quences, overturns State Rights, is put forward 
by Senators, who profess to be the special 
guardians of State Rights. 

Nor does this pretension derive any support 
from the much-debated clause in the Constitu- 
tion for the rendition of fugitives from " service 
or labor," on which so much stress is constant- 
ly put. But I do not occupy your time now on 
this head, for two reasons — first, because, hav- 
ing already on a former occasion exhibited 
with great fullness the character ol that clause, 
I am unwilling now thus incidentally to open 
the question upon it; and secondly, because, 
whatever may be its character — admitting that 
it confers power upon Congress — and admit- 
ting also, what is often denied, that, in defi- 
ance of commanding rules of interpretation, the 
equivocal words there employed have that "ir- 
resistible clearness" which is necessary in ta- 
king away Human Rights — yet nothing can be 
clearer than that the fugitives, whosoever they 
may be, are regarded under the Constitution as 
persons, and not as property. 

I disdain to dwell on that othef argument, 
brought forward by Senators, who, denying the 
Equality of Man, speciously assert the Equality 
of the States ; and from this principle, true in 
many respects, jump to the conclusion, that 
Slave-masters are entitled, in the name of 
Equality, to take their slaves into the National 
Territories, under the solemn safeguards of the 
Constitution. But this argument comes back 
to the first pretension, that slaves are recog- 
nised as " property " in the Constitution. To 
that pretension, already amply exposed, we are 
always brought, nor can ^ny sounding allega- 



tions of State Equality avoid it. And yet, this 
very argument betrays the inconsistency of its 
authors. If persons held to service in the 
Slave States are " property " under the Consti- 
tution, then, under the provisioH — known as 
the "three-fifths" rule —which founds repre- 
sentation in the other House on such persons, 
there is a property representation from the 
Slave States, with voice and vote, while there 
is no such property representation from the 
Free States. With glaring inequality, the rep- 
resentation of Slave States is founded first on 
" persons," and secondly on a large part of 
their pretended property; w' ile the represent,- 
ation of the Free States is founded simply on 
" persons," leaving all their boundless millions 
of property unrepresented. Thus, whichever 
way we approach it, the absurdity of this pre- 
tension becomes manifest. Assuming the pre- 
tension of property in man under the Consti- 
tution, you slap in the face the whole theory 
of State Equality, for you disclose a gigantic 
inequality between the Slave States and the 
Free States ; and assuming the Equality of 
States, in the House of Representatives as 
elsewhere, you slap in the face the whole pre- 
tension of property iu man under the Constitu- 
tion. 

I disdain to dwell also on that other arga- 
ment, which, in the name of Popular Sov- 
ereignty, undertakes to secure to the people in 
the Territories the wicked power — sometimes 
called, by confusion of terms, right — to enslave 
their fel!ow-men ; as if this pretension was not 
blasted at once by the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, when it announced that "all govern- 
ments derive their just powers from the con- 
sent of the governed," and as if anywhere within 
the jurisdiction of the Constitution, which con- 
tains no sentence, phrase, or word, sanctioning 
this outrage, and which carefully excludes the 
idea of property in man, while it surrounds all 
persons with the highest safeguards of a citi- 
zen, such pretension could exist. Whatever it 
may be elsewhere. Popular Sovereignty with- 
in the sphere of the Constitution has its limit- 
ations. Claiming fo • all the largest liberty of 
a true Civilization, it compresses all within the 
constraints of Justice ; nor does it allow any 
man to assert a right to do what he pleases, ex- 
cept when he pleases to do right. As well 
within the Territoiies attempt to make a King 
as attempt to make a slave. But this preten- 
sion — rejected alike by every Slave-master and 
by every lover of Freedom — 

Where I behold a factious band agree 

To call it freedom when themselves are free, 

proceeding originally from a vain effort to avoid 
the impending question between Freedom and 
Slavery — assuming a delusive phrase of Free- 
dom as a cloak for Slavery — speaking with the 
voice of Jacob while its hands are the hands oi 
Esau — and, by its plausible nick-name, ena- 
bling politicians sometimes to deceive the 
public and sometimes even to deceive them> 



31 



selves — may be dismissed with the other kin- 
dred pretensions for Slavery, while the Senator 
from Illinois, [Mr. Douolas,] who, if not its in- 
ventor, has been its boldest defender, will learn 
that Slave-masters for whom he has done so 
much cannot afford to be generous ; that their 
gratitude is founded on what they expect, and 
not ou what they have received ; and, that hav- 
ing its root iu desire rather than in fruition, it 
necessarily withers and dies with the power to 
serve them. The Senator, revolving these 
things in his mind, may confess the difficulty 
of his position, and, perhaps, 

remember Milo's ond, 

Wodgeii in that Timber which he strove to rend. 

And here I close this branch of the argu- 
ment, which I have treated less fully than the 
first, partly because time and strength fail me, 
but chiefly because the Barbarism of Slavery, 
when fully established, supersedes all other in- 
quiry. But enough has been done on this head. 
At the risk of repetition, I now gather it to- 
gether. The assumption that Slave-masters, 
under the Constitution, may take their slaves 
into the Territories, and continue to hold them 
as in the States, stands on two pretensions — first 
that man may hold property in man, and sec- 
ondly that this property is recognised iu the 
Constitution. But we have seen that the pre- 
tended property iu man stands on no reason, 
while the two special arguments by which it 
has been assertea, first an alleged inferiority of 
race, and secondly the ancient curse of Ham, 
are grossly insufficient to uphold'Such a preten- 
sion. And we have next seen that this pre- 
tension has as little support in the Constitution 
as in reason ; that Slavery is of such an offen- 
sive character, that it can find support only in 
" positive " sanction, and words of " irresistible 
clearness;" that this benign rule, questioned 
in the Senate, is consistent with the principles 
of an advanced civilization ; that no such " posi- 
tive " sanction, in words of " irresistible clear- 
ness," can be found in the Constitution, while, 
in harraouy with the Declaration of Independ- 
ence, and the Address of the Continental Con- 
gress, the contemporaneous declarations in the 
Convention, and especially the act of the Con- 
vention in substituting " service " for " servi- 
tude," on the ground that the latter expressed 
"the condition of slaves," all attest that the 
pretension that man can hold property in man 
was carefully, scrupulously, and completely ex- 
cluded from the Constitution, so that it has no 
semblance of support in that sacred text ; nor 
is this pretension, which is unsupported in the 
Constitution, helped by the two arguments, one 
in the name of State Equality, and the other 
in ihe name of Popular Sovereignty, both of 
which are properly put aside. 

Sir, the true principle, which, reversing the 
assumptions of >lave-master3, makes Freedom 
naiional and Slavery sectional, while every 
just claim of the Slave States is harmonized 
with the irresistible predominance of Freedom 



under the Constitution, has been declared at 
Chicago. Not questioning the right of each 
State, whether South Carolina or Turkey, Vir- 
ginia or Russia, to order and control its own 
domestic institutions according to its own judg- 
ment exclusively, the Convention there assem- 
bled has explicitly announced Freedom to be 
" the normal condition of all the Territory of 
the United States," and has explicitly denied 
"the authority of Congress, of a Territorial 
Legislature, or of any individuals, to give legal 
existence to Slavery in any Territory of the 
United States." Such is the triumphant re- 
sponse, by the aroused millions of the North, 
alike to the assumption of Slave-masters that 
the Constitution, of its own force, carries Slave- 
ry into the Territories; and also to the device of 
politicians, that the people of the Territories, 
in the exercise of a dishonest Popular Sov- 
ereignty, may plant Slavery there. This re- 
sponse is complete at all points, whether the 
Constitution acts upon the Territories before 
their organization, or only afterward ; for, in 
the absence of a Territorial Government, there 
can be no "positive" law in words of "irre- 
sistible clearness" for Slavery, as there can 
be no such law, when a Territorial Grov- 
ernment is organized, under the Constitution. 
Thus the normal condition of the Territories is 
confirmed by the Constitution, which, when ex- 
tended over them, renders Slavery impossible, 
while it writes upon the soil and engraves upon 
the rock everywhere the law of impartial Free- 
dom, without distinction of color or race. 

Mr. President, this argument is now closed. 
Pardon me for the time I have occupied. It 
is long since I have made any such claim 
upon your attention. Pardon me, also, if I 
have said anything which I ought not to have 
said. I have spoken frankly, and from the 
heart; if severely, yet only with the severity of 
a sorrowful candor, calling things by their 
right names, and letting historic facts tell their 
unimpeachable story. I have spoken in the 
patriotic hope of contributing to the welfare 
of my country, and also in the assured convic- 
tion that what I have said will find a re- 
sponse in generous souls. I believe that I 
have said nothing which is not sustained by 
well-founded argument or well-founded testi- 
mony, nothing which can be coniTCverted with- 
out a direct assault upon reason or apoo 
truth. 

The two assumptions of Slave-masters have 
been answered. But this is not enough. Let 
the answer become a legislative act, by the 
admission of Kansas as a Free State. Then 
will the Barbarism of Slavery be repelled, and 
the pretension of property in man be rebuked. 
Such an ct, closing this long struggle by the 
assurance of peace to the Territory, if not of 
tranquillity to the whole country, will be more 
grateful still as the herald of that better day, 
Aiear at hand, when Freedom shall be installed 



32 



everj-wtere under the National Government; 
when the National Flfi?, wherever it floats, on 
sea or land, within the national jurisdiction, 
■will not cover a single slave ; and when the 
Declaration of Independence, now reviled in 
the name of Slavery, will once again be rever- 
enced as the American Magna Charta of Hu- 
man Rights. Nor is this all. Such an act will 
be the first stage in those triumphs by which 
the Republic — lifted in character so as to be- 
come an example to mankind — will enter at 
last upon its noble " prerogative of teaching 
the nations how to live." 

Thus, sir, speaking for Freedom in Kan- 
sas, I have spoken for Freedom everywhere, 



and for Civilization ; and, as the less is con- 
tained in the greater, so are all arts, all sciences, 
all economies, all refinements, all charities, all 
delights of life, embodied in this cause. You 
may reject it; but it will be only for to-day. 
The sacred animosity between Freedom and 
Slavery can end only with the triumph of Free- 
dom. This same Question will be soon carried 
before that high tribunal, supreme over Senate 
and Court, where the judges will be counted 
by millions, and where the judgment rendered 
will be the solemn charge of an aroused people, 
instructing a new President, in the name of 
Freedom, to see that Civiliztitiou receives no 
detriment. 



APPENDIX 



AVlieii Mr. Sdmser resumed his Beat, Mr. CIIESNUT, of 
South Carolina, spoke as follows : 

Mr. President, after the extraordinary though character- 
istic speech just uttered in the Senate, it is proper that I as- 
sign the reason for the position we are now inclined to as- 
sume. After ranging over Europe, crawling through the 
back doors to whine at the feet of British aristocracy, cra- 
ving pity, and reaping a rich harvest of contempt, the slan- 
derer of States and men reappears in the Senate. We had 
hoped to be relieved from the outpourings of such vulgar 
malice. We had hoped that one who had felt, though igno- 
miuiously he failed to meet, the consequences of a former 
insolence, would have become wiser, if not better, by expe- 
rience. Ill this 1 am disappointed, .and I regret it. Mr. 
President, in the heroic ages of the world, men were deified 
for the po.ssession and the exercise of some virtues — wisdom, 
truth, justice, magnanimity, courage. In Egypt, also, we 
know they deified beasts and reptiles; but even that bestial 
people worshipped their idols on account of some supposed 
virtue. It has been left for this day, for this country, for 
the Abolitionists of Massachusetts, to deify the incarnation of 
Tnalice, mendacity, and cowardice. Sir, wo do not intend to 
be guilty of aiding in the apotheosis of pusillanimity and 
meanness. We do not intend to contribute, by any conduct 
on our part, t^j increase the devotees at the shrine of this 
new idol. We Icnow what is expected and what is desired. 
We are not inclined again to send forth the recipient of PUN- 
ISHMENT howling through the world, yelping fresh cries of 
slander andmalice. These arctJie reasons, which I feel it due 
to myself and others to give to the Senate and the country, 
why we have quietly listened to what has been said, and 
why we can take no other notice of the matter. 

In these words, llr. Chesnut refers to the assault upon 
Mr. Sumner with a bludgeon on the floor of the Senate, by a 
Representative from South Carolina, since dead, aided by 
another Representative from that same State, and also a 
'Representative from Virginia, on account of which Mr. Sum- 
NKa had been compeUed to leave his seat vacant, and seek 



the restoration of his health by travel. As Mr. CnESxvT 
spoke, he was surrounded by the Slave-masters of the Son- 
ate, who seemed to approve what ho said. There was no 
call to order by the Chair, which was occupied at tho time 
by Mr. Bigler, of Pennsylvania. Mr. SUMNER obtained the 
floor with difflculty, whilo a motion was pending for the 
postponement of the question, and said : 

Mr. President, before this question passes away, I think I 
ought to make (^though perhaps there is no occasion for it) 
a response to tlio Senator from South Carolina. [" No ! " 
from several Senators.] Only one word. I exposed tn-duy 
the Barbarism of Slavery. What the Senator has said in 
reply to me, I may well print in an Appendix to my speech 
as an additional illustration. That is all. 

Mr. HAMMOND, of South Carolina, said : 

I hope he will do it. 



The following letter, from a venerable citizen, an ornament 
of our legislative halls at the beginning of the century, and 
now the oldest survivor of all who have ever been members 
of Congress, is too valuable, in its testimony and its counsel, 
to be omitted in this place : 

Boston, June 5, ISCO. 

Dear Sir : I have read a few abstracts from your noblo 
speech, but must wait for it in a panipb!ct form, that I m.iy 
read it in such type as eyes, in the eighty-ninth year of their 
age, will permit. But I have rcud enough to approve, and 
rejoice that you have been iiermitted, thus truly, fully, and 
faithfully, to expose the "Barbarism" of Slavery on that 
very floor, on which you wcro so cruelly and brutally strick- 
en down by tho spirit of that Barbarism. 

I only hope that in an Appendix you will preserve the vera 
effigies of that insect that attempted to sting you. Remember 
tiaat the value of amber is increased by the insect it pre- 
serves. Yours, very truly, 

JOSIAH QUINCY. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. 
BUELL & BLANCHARD, PRINTERS. 

1860. 

HepuUished by the Congressional Republican Committee. Price $2 per hundred. 



1/ if ./\ iAy\ 



PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1860. 



REPUBLICAN EXECUTIVE CONGRESSIOiVAL COMMITTEE. 



HON. PRESTO>J KING, N. Y., Chairman. 
" J. W. GRIMES, IOWA. 
•• L. F. S. FOSTER, COxNN. 

On the part of the Seiiate. 

" E. B. WASHBURNE, ILLINOIS. 



HON. JOHN COVODE, PENN., Treamrer. 
" E. G. SPAULDING, N. Y. 
" J. B. ALLEY, MASS. 
" DAVID KILGORE, INDIANA. 
" J. L. N. STRATTON, N. J. 

On the part of the House of Reps. 



The Committee are prepared to furnish the foUowino^ Speeches and Documents : 

RosifriiiiiK lliti Positwn as Cliairman of the Committee on 
ConiiiRTcc unci reasons for leaving the Domocratic I'urty — 
Hannibal Hamlin. 

Public Kx[)enaitiircs— R. H. Dncll. 

The Kopnblican Party and the Rcpublicaa Candidate for the 
Presi<loncy— W. McKoi; Dunn. 



EIGHT PAOKS. 

The State of the Country— W. H. Howard. 

'• Irrepressible Conliict" — W. H. Seward. 

Free Homes for Free Men — G. A. Grow. 

Shall the Territories be Africanized — James Harlan. 

Who have Violated Compromises — John Uickman. 

Invasion of Harper's Ferry — B. F. Wade. 

The Spcaker.shii) — G. W. Scrautou and J. H. CampboU. 

Colonization and Commerce — F. P. Blair. 

General Politics — Orris S. Ferry. 

The Demands of the St)uth — ^thc Republican Party Vindi- 
cated — Abraham Lincoln. 

The Homestead Bill — Its Friends and its Foes — W. Windoin. 

The Biirbarism of Slavery — Owen Lovejoy. 

The New Dogma of the' South — " Slavery a Blessing " — H. 
L. Dawes. 

Tlie Position of Parties— R. H. Ducll. 

The Homestead Bill — M. S. Wilkinson. 

Polygamy in Utiili — D. W. Gooch. ^ 

Douglas and Popular Sovereignty — Carl Schurz. 

Lands for the I/indless — A Tract. 

The Poor Whites of the South — The Injury done them by 
Slavery — A Tract. 

A Protective Tariff Necessary — Rights of Labor — James H. 
Campbell. 

The Fanaticism of the Democratic Party — Owen IxDvejoy. 

Mission of Republicans — Seclioualism of Modern Democ- 
racy — Robert McKniglit. 

Southern Sectionalism— John Hickman. 

Freedom vs. Slavery — John Huichins. 

Republican Laud Policy — Homos for the Million — .Stephen C. 
Foster. " 

Tariff— Justin S. Morrill. 

Legislative Protection to the Industry of the People — Alex- 
ander H. Rice. 

Modern Democracy — Henry Waldron. 

The Territorial Slave Policy ; The Republican Party ; What 
the North has to do with Slavery— Thomas D. Eliot. 

The Supreme Court of the United States — Roscoe Conk ling. 

Designs of the Republican Party — Christopher Robinson. 

Address — ilontgomcry Blair. 

The Necessity of Protecting American Liibor — J. P. Verree. 

Pennsylvania Betrayed by the Administration — J. Schwartz. 

The Republican Party and its Principles — .lames T. Hale. . 

Revenue and Expenditures — John Sherman. 

The Cl.-iims of Agriculttire — .Tohn Carey. 

Kegro Equality — The Right of One Man to Hold Property in 
Another — The Domocratic Party a Disunion Party — The 
Success of the Republican Party the only Salvation lor the 
Country — Benjamin Stanton. 

Mutual Interest of the Fanner and ilanufacturer — Carey A. 
Trimble. 

The Tariff— Its Constitutionality, Necessity, and Advanta- 
ges — John T. Nixon. 

Position of Parties and Abuses of Powfr — Reuben E. Fenton. 

Bill and Report Repealing the Territorial Laws of New Mexi- 
co — John A. Bingham. 

Democracy alhis Slavery— James B. JfcKean. 

Abraham Lincoln, His Personal History and Public Record— 
E. R Washburnc. 

The President's Message — T)io Sectional Party— John A. 
Bingham. 

The Republican Party a Necessity — Charles F. Adams. 

The Filibustering Policy of the .'^hara Democracy — J. J. Perry. 

Pennsylvania Betrayed by the Administration— J. Schwartz. 

Modern Democracy — Justin S. Morrill. 

Equality of Rights in the Territories- Harrison G. Blake. 



Tlio Republican Platlbrni— E. G. Spaulding. 
Frauds in .Vaval Contracts— John Sherman. 
Senate Investigation of Public Printing — Preston King. 

SIXTEEN PAGES. 
Seizure of Arsenals at Harper's Ferry;, Va. and Liberty, 

Mo. — Lyman Trumbull. 
Property in the Territories — B. F. Wade. 
True Dem»cracy— History Vindicated— C. H. Van Wyck. 
Territorial Slave Code— H. Wilson. 
Slavery in the Territories— Jolm P. Hale. 
" Posting the Books between the North and the South "—J. 

J. Perry. 
The Calhoun Revolution — Its Basis and its Progress— J. R. 

Doolittle. 
The Republican Party the Result of Southern Aggression— 

C. B. Sedgwick. 
Admission of Kansas— M. J. Parrott. 
Federalism Unmasked — Daniel R. Goodloe. 
The Slavery Question — C. C. Washburn. 
Thomas Corwiu's Great Speech, Abridged. 
The Issues — The Dred Scott Decision — ^The Parties — Israel 

Washburn, Jun. 
Tarifl— Siimuel S. Blair. 

The Rise and Fall of the Domocratic Party — K. S. Bingham. 
In Defence of the North and Northern Laborers — H. Uauiliu 

TWEX'TY-F.OUR PAGES. 

Slavery in the Territories — Jacob Collamer. 

THIRTY-TWO PAGES. 

Thomas Corwin's Great Speech. 

SMiccess of the Calhoun Revolution : The Constitution Ch;inged 
and .Skivery Nationalized by the Usurpations of the Su- 
preme Court — Tames M. Ashley. 

The Barbarism of Slavery — Charles Sumner. 

GERMAN. 

EIGHT PAGK.S. 
Tlie Demands of the South— The Republican Party Vindi- 

riicated — .\braham Lincoln 
Free Homes for Free Men — G. A. Grow. 
Shall the Territories be .\fricanizod — James Harlan. 
Who have Violated C-mpromises — John Hickman. 
The Homestead Bill— It.s Friends and its Foes— W. Windora 
youglas and Popular Sin-ereigntv — Carl Schurz. 
The Horn •stead Bill— M. S. Wilkinson. 
The Barbarism of Slavery — Owen Lovejoy. 
Southern Sectionalism — .lohn Hickman. 
Equality of RigKts in the Territories- Harrison G. Bluke. 
The Claims of Agriculture — .lohii Carey. 

SIXTEEN PAGES. 
SeiKure of the Arsenals at Harper's Ferry, Va.,and Liberty, 

Mo. , and in Vindication ot the Rei)ublican Party— Lyman 

Trumbull. 
The suite of the Country— W. H. Seward. 
Lands lor the I^iiudless — A Tract. 
Election of Speaker — H. Winter Davis. 

THIRTY-TWO PAGES. 

Tlie Barbarism of Slavery— Charles Sumner. 



And all Republican Speeches as delivered. 

During- the Presidential Campaisrn, Speeches and Documents will be supplied at the following 
reduced prices : per 100 — 8 pages 50 cents, 16 pages $1, and larger documents in proportion. 
Address either of the above Committee. 

GEORGE HARRINGTON, Secretary. 



OF THE IJ. S. SENA^ 



The following pamphlets will shortly appear, being contribu 

to the cause of 

HUMAN UIGHTS AND CONSTITUTIONAL LIBEETI 

BY THADDEUS HYATT, 

Of the city of New York. 



No. 1. History of the Usurpation of 
the United States Senate in the Case of 
Thaddeus Hyatt, who was arrested without 
law or precedent, and incarcerated in the 
common jail at Washington from the 12th 
day of March to the 15th day of June, 1860. 
This pamphlet will contain the speeches, in 
full, of 

Charles Summer and Jolm P. Hale, 

in the Senate, ou the 12th of March, on the 
question of imprisoning the witness ; and of 
Charles Sumner, on the 15th of June, on the 
event of his release. 

No. 2. Proceedings of tlie Indignation 
Meeting held at New York on the 11th May, 
1860, to denounce the usurpation of the 
Senate, and propose measures of release. 
Speeches by Rev. Dr. G. B. Cheever, Wen- 
dell Phillips, Hon. S. E. Sewall, and others. 

No. 3. Sermon on the Rights of Con- 
science, by Rev. Dr. G. B. Cheever. Preach- 
ed in the Church of the Puritans, on the 
20th May, 1860, being a plea for Thaddeus 
Hyatt, then still lying in the " Human Sty " 
at Washington. 

No. 4. Proceedings of the Boston Indig- 
nation Meeting, held in the Melodeon, at 
Boston, on the Slst day of May, 1860, to 
consider the case of Thaddeus Hyatt. 
Speeches by Wendell Phillips, Rev. Dr. G. 
B. Cheever, Hon. Samuel E. Sewall, F. B. 
Sanborn, and others. 

No. 5. Popular and Legal Prize Es- 
says, in response to the olfer of $100 and 
$200 prizes by Thaddeus Hyatt, for the best 
essays on the following questions : 

1. In what, if any, cases, does the Constitu- 
tion permit the Senate of the United States to 
coerce witnesses for informatiou, to merely aid 
legislation ? 

2. In what, if any, cases, does the Constitu- 
tion permit the Senate of the United States to 
seize and force witnesses from their States, to 
merely aid legislation ? 



3. In what, if any. cases^ does the Co 
tion permit the Senate of the United Sti 
investigate alleged crime, to merely aid 
lation ? 

My offer is $100 for the best popular 
and $200 for the best legal essay, on the 
questions. 

TIME EXTENDED. 

THE $1(0 AND $200 PRIZES. 

In consequence of the limited notice th 
the press of the above offer, I am now t 
measures to thoroughly advertise the sam 
of consequence extend the time, which is 
by extended to the 10th day of August, ] 

The following distinguished gentlemen 
accepted the duty of making the awards : 

.John Jay, Esq., Hiram Barney, Esq 
Edjrar Ketchum, Esq., of New York ; the 
S. E. Sewall, John A. Andrew, Eaqs., an 
Rev. John Pierpont, of Mass. 

Essays not to exceed 40 pages octavo 
primer. 

The popular essays to be sent to the 
S. E. Sewall, No. 46 Washington street, 
ton ; the legal essays to Edgar Ketchum, 
No. Y9 Nassau street. New York. 

Each essay to be submitted with a 
attached ; the name and adciress of the 
to be in a sealed envelope, bearing the 
of the essay. Thaddeus Hyj 

Wusliington Jail, June 5, 1860. 

No. 6. The whole of the fore, 
bound in one volume ; including, ah 
lections from the correspondence o 
Hyatt, during his lo] weeks of imj 
raent. 

The above works will be sold at cost. 
traits of the following gentlemen will illi 
the whole : 

Lithograph of Charles Sumner, J. P. 
Wendell Phillips. Rev. Dr. George B. CI 
Hon. S. E. Sewall, and the State Prison 

Advertisements in the New York 1 
and other papers will furnish all furtht 
ticulars, as soon as the works ar.e ready. 



















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